Pentatonix - Fall Tour in NYC - Sequel to Summer at the Beach
by butterflyeleven11
Summary: Read Pentatonix - Summer at the Beach first, this is the sequel to that story. :) Thanks for stopping by and reading this story. This story takes place in the Fall in NYC and there is some more drama with our favorite music group, Pentatonix!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One – NYC

Kirstie wakes to a buzzing sound from her phone and she slowly opens her eyes and turns to her side and looks over at her nightstand where her phone screen is lit up notifying her of a text message. She reaches outside of the warm cocoon of covers and grabs her phone and she squints at the brightness of the screen and sees a message from Scott. She scrolls her thumb across the bottom of the screen to unlock her phone and reads the message and notices that it is a group message to the band, 'PTX – GUESS WHAT…! We are going to NYC for the fall and we will be there for two months! We leave Friday!'

Kirstie rolls over and sees that Avi is still sleeping soundly, how that boy could sleep through everything. She placed her phone back down and rolled back over towards Avi and hugged him and kissed him on his cheek saying, "Wake up sleepy bear."

Avi moaned, "No, sleepy bear needs his sleep."

Kirstie giggled and kissed Avi on the cheek and said, "I'm getting up, I'll go put some coffee on. Hey, we got a message from Scott that you might want to check out."

Kirstie sat up and was pulled back by Avi as she laughed, "I thought you were sleeping."

"I was, I want to snuggle with you for a while though," Avi said pulling Kirstie into him as he held her close. He was happier than he ever has been and he knew that Kirstie was the one for him, and one day, he would marry her. "I love you," Avi said into her hair. Kristie smiled and said, "I love you more." He kissed her cheek saying, "Never." He finally let her get up, but not before a few more kisses. Avi sat up and looked over at his phone and read the message and excitedly said, "Wow, New York in the fall, it's beautiful there at this time of year, and we are going to stay for two months."

"I know, right, it's going to be amazing, I can't wait to go!" Kirstie said as she left the bedroom and headed into the kitchen. Avi could hear the rustling of the coffee pot while he got up and went into the bathroom to shower and get ready for the day.

Kirstie was waiting on the coffee to brew, and pulled out her phone and called Emma.

"Hello," a very groggy Emily answered.

"Hey Em, are you still sleeping?" Kirstie asked surprised because she thought for sure that Scott would have woken her up already with the news of New York.

"Um, what time is it? Yea, I was sleeping, what's up cuz?" Emma said with a yawn.

"I guess you haven't talked to Scott yet today?" Kirstie laughed.

Emma sat up and said, "What's wrong with Scott, no I haven't talked to him today, I didn't stay over at his place last night, I'm at home."

"Nothing is wrong, silly, we are going to New York City, we leave Friday! We will be there for two months!" Kirstie exclaimed not able to keep in her excitement.

"Wow, that's amazing, y'all are going to have so much fun there!" Emma said still feeling very tired, she had stayed up way too late last night and could barely concentrate.

"Um, don't you mean, that we will have so much fun there, you are coming with me, Personal Assistant Emma," Kirstie said in her kidding authoritative voice.

Emma blinked and then giggled, "Yes ma'am, bear with me, and I'm still trying to wake up. I'll see you in a little bit, okay."

Kirstie laughed and said, "Okay, see you", and hung up the phone. She went back to her coffee which was finally done. She poured two cups and added a little pumpkin spice creamer to both cups before walking back to bedroom to see Avi fully dressed.

"I wish I could get ready as fast as you do, it's not fair, here's your coffee sweetie," Kirstie said with a kiss.

"Thank you honey," Avi said kissing her on her forehead.

Kirstie brought her coffee into the bathroom and started the shower as she started to get ready for the day. She knew that there will be a band meeting later this morning especially since the news of the New York trip.

Scott came back into the apartment he shared with Mitch with two coffees from Starbucks. He placed them down on the kitchen counter and said loudly, "Mitchie, your coffee is here."

Mitch came out of his bedroom with a wide smile and said, "Thank you so much, Scotty, you are a life saver today."

Scott smiled and said, "What time is the band meeting today? Did you get a hold of Kevin?"

"Yea, it's going to be at 10:30am, I think that everyone is coming here. Should we invite the crew as well, or is this just for the band?" Mitch asked as he sipped from his coffee cup.

Scott nodded and answered, "Just the band for now, we still have a few days to get the details ready with the crew. I sent out a group text separately to the crew."

"It's crazy to think that we have a crew of fifteen that travel with us everywhere," Mitch said.

"Yea, it is, I might let Esther handle the meeting with the crew as she is the crew manager," Scott said with a smile so thankful that he was not in charge of it.

"You loved Esther getting that role, didn't you," Mitch said with a small grin.

"You have no idea, Esther is awesome at the job and we all love having her with us, especially Kevin," Scott said with a wink.

"Do you think that Kevin will ever tell her that he has a big giant crush on her?" Mitch asked.

Scott and Mitch both shared a look and at the same time said, "Nope."

Band Meeting 10:30AM Scott and Mitch's Apartment

Everyone settled in around the living room of Scott and Mitch's apartment and all were talking excitedly about the upcoming trip to New York. Kevin asked Scott, "Any idea where we are going to stay?"

Scott replied, "I think that we are going to try and get a house near Central Park that we can all sleep in, well, we might be getting a couple of apartments. It'll be cheaper than trying to rent out hotel rooms for everyone for two months. Our manager is going to get all of that figured out for us."

"Cool, this will be so great, I can't wait to go," Kevin said with a wide smile.

Avi and Kirstie were sitting beside each other playing with one another's hands and Avi asked, "How many shows are we going to do?"

"I think that we are going to do about 3 shows a week, maybe more if we sell out on a night or something," answered Scott.

They all continued to talk and share ideas about the upcoming NYC Tour and couldn't wait to get the word out to the public and Mitch said, "I know what we will talk about on Superfruit this week!"

Kirstie laughed, "We all should be on that episode! That would be funny."

Scott and Mitch shared a look and smiled and Mitch said, "That would be amazing, do you think you all would want to, we could do a Q&A episode and make the announcement at the end of the episode!"

"Yes," everyone said at the same time. They continued to talk about the details of the trip and decided to sing some new songs that they were working on as Wyatt slowly moved from lap to lap, finally deciding to settle in on Mitch's lap. Mitch played with Wyatt's ears and looked over at Scott and asked, "Since we will be staying in an apartment or house, can we bring Wyatt with us?"

Scott smiled and said, "I don't know why not."

LATER THAT SAME DAY

Emma knocked on Scott and Mitch's apartment door and Mitch answered and said, "Hey Em, come on it."

Emma walked in and hugged Mitch, "I'm so happy for y'all, this is going to be amazing!"

Mitch hugged Emma back and they walked over to the living room where Emma plopped down on the oversized chair in the corner of the room and looked around and asked Mitch, "Where's Scott? He said that he would be here."

"He'll be right back, he went to get lunch for us," Mitch said and then asked, "So, Em, are you excited to be coming on tour with us again?"

"I can't wait, I am beyond happy that I get to see New York and for so long, we will really get to see the city over that amount of time," Emma said.

Emma looked over at Mitch and asked, "So, have you talked to Paul recently?"

"Not really that much, we texted and talked some, but I just don't really do the whole long distance relationship thing, you know, it's tough to do for me," Mitch said with a small frown.

"Don't worry, Mitchie, you will find someone, you are such an amazing and talented person," Emma said with a smile.

"You are so sweet, Em, I can see why Scott loves you," Mitch said.

"I love him too," Emma said.

Mitch and Emma watched TV and heard Scott come in the door with lunch, he looked over at Emma and smiled and said, "Hey, you beat me here."

Emma got up and walked over to Scott and hugged him and said, "I wanted to come by early, I have a couple of meetings later."

Scott and Emma shared a quick kiss and Scott started dividing out the food amongst them. They all sat in the living room and continued watching TV. After Mitch finished his food, he got up and said, "I'm going to go over to Kevin's for a while, see you two lovebirds later."

Scott smiled and mouthed, "thank you" to Mitch and as soon as Mitch left the apartment Scott pulled Emma over to his lap and she giggled as she almost spilled her salad.

"Scott, let me at least put my food down first," laughed Emma.

Scott reached around her and placed her food on the coffee table and turned Emma towards him and kissed her and pulled back and said, "Sorry, I just can't get enough of your kisses."

Emma felt so loved in that one moment, that she felt like her heart could burst. She looked at Scott's brilliant blue eyes and said, "You aren't alone there, sweetie, I love your kisses so much. I love you."

"I love you too, Emma," Scott said with a deeper kiss this time.

They broke free for some air and Scott said, "Are you excited to come with us to NYC?"

"Yes, I can't wait, it's going to be amazing, when are y'all going to announce the tour, tickets will go quickly," Emma said enthusiastically.

"We were all talking and we are going to announce the tour on the next episode of Superfruit with a Q&A, we are actually going to have all five of us on the episode. I think that they will go on sale next week, we won't start shows for a week or so, so we will get some time to see the city," Scott said.

"I'll be sure to submit my questions to you, even though you never pick my questions," Emma said laughing.

"It might have something to do with the types of questions you ask," Scott said laughing.

"You and Mitch are so funny, I can't wait to see it," Emma said.

After a little while, Emma looked at Scott and said, "You aren't getting sick of me yet, are you, another tour with your girlfriend," Emma teased.

"Yes, I'm getting tired of it," Scott teased and then said, "Of course not, Em, I love that you come on tour with us, I would be so sad if you didn't."

"I can't believe that I ever took time to think about becoming Kirstie's assistant back at the beach house, that seems so long ago," Emma said.

"I'm glad that you decided to join us," Scott said pulling Emma into a hug.

Emma leaned back smiling and said, "Well, I better go soon, I've got a meeting with Kirstie in about thirty minutes, can't be late for my boss."

Pouting his lip, he said, "Don't go to your meetings, stay here with me."

"Don't give me that cute little pout, Scott," Emma said.

Scott stood up and pulled Emma to a standing position in front of him, "Are you going to come back by tonight?"

"Yea, I'll be back by around nine," Emma said leaning up and kissing Scott.

Scott leaned in and kissed Em and wrapped his arms around her.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two – Welcome to Superfruit

A few days passed and Mitch and Scott were busy setting up their camera and lights for the Superfruit Q&A episode with all five members of Pentatonix. "This is exciting to have everyone here, I believe that this is a first for us, Scott," Mitch said moving one of the lights slightly towards the couch.

"Yea, it'll be great, I think that our fans will absolutely love it," Scott replied back as he was setting up the final touches for the camera on the tri-pod.

Avi and Kevin walked into the apartment and Avi asked, "Is this being filmed live?"

"No, we record it, edit it, and then we will post it up tomorrow. So, almost live," Scott said.

"I have already sent out a tweet for all of us, we will have Esther here to read the tweets for us since there are so many of us here today," Mitch said.

"But, I don't have to be on camera, right?" Esther asked shyly. "I was planning on sitting behind the camera over here."

Mitch smiled and said, "No, you don't have to be on camera, but your voice will be if that's okay. This is kind of scary; Scott and I usually get to read the tweets first and then pick the questions we want to answer. Esther, you have to be good to all of us, please."

"I didn't think about that," Scott said with a look towards Mitch.

"This will be awesome," Esther said glancing over some tweets already, "I've got some good ones here."

Kirstie came into the apartment with drinks for everyone from Starbucks and said, "Okay, I think that I have everyone covered."

Avi came over and greeted Kirstie and said, "Thanks sweetie," and gave Kirstie a hug and kiss.

Kirstie came over to the couch and said, "Um, where are we all sitting?"

"I was thinking that Avi and Kevin could sit up front here and Mitch, you, and I could sit on the couch like we have done in other videos," Scott said pointing.

They all got into their seats and Esther looked through the lenses and said, "Looks good, tell me when and I'll start recording."

Mitch said, "Okay, you can record now."

Mitch and Scott introduced the show as they always did, "Hello, and welcome to Superfruit, the best show on the internet…"

Mitch then tells the camera, "Today is a very special day, we have all members of Pentatonix here today for your questions!"

"Yes, and Esther will be asking the questions to us, so let's get started," Scott said and then looked over at Mitch and said, "I'm scared. We always have our phones."

Esther laughed and said, "Okay, this question comes to us from megthumper, Avi, are you dating someone and if so, who?"

Avi shot a look at Esther who was laughing behind the camera as Kirstie was turning bright red. The fans had assumed this for a little while now that Avi and Kirstie were dating, but they never came out and actually told the public about it. Avi smiled and said, "Well, Meg, yes, I am dating someone and I don't know if I should say who at the moment." He then glanced back over at Kirstie and winked and Kirstie shook her head knowing that would be a giveaway.

Kevin said, "I love that question!"

Esther giggled and said, "Okay, everyone, next question, AsenaAyvalioglu, asks who in Pentatonix has the best voice?"

"Asena, I think we can all agree that Mitch sings like an angel," Scott said and everyone agreed.

"Aw, that's nice, but you are all great too," Mitch said smiling.

Esther smiled and said, "Next question, this one is for you Kirstie, PTXPTXPTXPTXPTX, wants to know who is that special someone in your life?"

Kirstie smiled and said, "Well, PTX times 5, I do have a special someone in my life, he's right here in this room too." Kirstie grinned from ear to ear and could see Avi blushing.

Scott and Mitch laughed and Scott nudged Kirstie and said, "Just tell them already, they already know."

"Okay, okay, Avi and I are dating everyone, there, it's out there," Kirstie said.

Avi turned and said, "Really, are you okay with it being out there, Kirstie?"

"Of course, but I will say, for all you girls out there that are about to send me some hate, please don't," Kirstie said with a smile towards the camera.

Esther said, "These questions are going better than I thought, we are already breaking through and sharing some secrets with our fans! Onto the next question, looks like this one is for you, Kevin. It comes from pentaholic007, who would you trade positions within the group if you could sing their part?"

"That's an easy one, I would say Mitch, I know, I know, we always say this, but his voice is amazing, the things that he can do with his voice are truly unbelievable," Kevin said with a wide smile.

"That's nice, Kevin, thanks," Mitch said.

Esther said, "Next question, this is for the group, from TwnynkLovesPTX, tell us something about yourself that no one knows."

Esther then adds, "We'll start with you, Avi and work our way around."

Avi says, "Well, seeing that everyone just found out about me and Kirst, I think that I'm good for that one." Avi smiles and looks back at Kirstie and winks.

Kevin says, "Um, I'll say, I have this irrational fear of spiders, I know, I look like this big tough guy, but I really hate spiders."

They all laugh and nod in agreement.

Kirstie thinks and ponders for a quick second and says, "Ah, okay, here's a secret of mine that I don't think even the guys here know, not even Avi," and she laughs to herself as they all look at her and she debates on not saying it at first, but then says, "I have always wanted to be the 'chair girl' in the song, "Let's Get It On."

They all laugh and then Avi says, "Next concert, that is so happening, Kirstie!"

"No, no, it's fine, let one of our fans do that," Kirstie said pointing out to the camera.

"I think that they wouldn't mind you doing it," Mitch said with a smile and then said, "It would be so funny!"

Scott laughs and says, "Avi and I can switch parts in the song!"

Kirstie nods and says, "That might work, okay, Scott, your turn."

Scott looks at the camera and says, "Hmmm, okay, something that you might not know about me, I am seeing someone too."

Mitch throws his hand playfully over his open mouth and says, "Really, you don't say."

Scott laughs and tells Mitch playfully, "shut up."

Mitch laughs and looks at the camera and says, "Okay, since we are giving out secrets today, Scott is dating Kirstie's cousin. Whhhaattt.."

Scott looks at Mitch and says, "Don't."

Mitch says, "Okay, a secret from me, or something that no one knows about me. I think that Scott has the best voice of the group, it's amazing. Honestly, boy can sing."

Scott smiles and says, "That's nice."

Esther then says, "Do we have time for more questions? Yes, of course we do, this is amazing! Our next question comes to us from mynameis55679, do you have any upcoming tours planned?"

"Yes, we do!" Scott exclaimed and said, "This is a perfect time to announce that we have an upcoming two month tour to New York City coming up, we will have tickets on sale starting tomorrow and we can't wait to be there in the city and meet all of you, our wonderful and amazing fans!"

"We are so excited!" Mitch chimed in.

"That's all the time we have for today for questions, now it's time for our Weekly Obsessions", Mitch sang.

"I'll go first, and then we can go to Mitch, Avi, Kevin, and Kristie," Scott said. "Okay, my weekly obsession has been this upcoming tour to NYC, I can't wait."

"Not to copy you, but that's mine too, I can't wait for our concerts, I think we are even doing a concert in the park one night, it will be so amazing!" Mitch said happily.

Avi smiled flirtatious and said, "My weekly obsession is that girl over there," pointing over to Kirstie and he smiled to the camera. Kirstie looked down in her lap and giggled.

Kevin then said, "Hmm, I would have to say the tour and someone that I have been crushing on recently."

"Whhatt, whoa, stop right there, someone you have been crushing on recently, who is this Kevin," Avi said shocked.

Kevin smiled and nodded towards the camera, "It's so easy to get them worked up, isn't it."

Kevin then looked over at Kirstie, "You're turn, Kristie."

"My weekly obsession besides that guy sitting over there is this amazing tour coming up!" Kirstie said with a crooked grin towards Avi.

"Everyone, here's a good song! Don't listen to anything else today!," Scott sang loudly.

Mitch and Kirstie laughed and Kirstie started with, "Okay, I have to say, I love the song, All About That Bass."

Mitch said, "You sure it's not because you are truly all about that bass," pointing to Avi and laughing.

Kirstie laughed and said, "You know, I never really thought about it that way!"

Scott said, "I am still loving Bang Bang, I know that I have said it before, but I love it!"

Mitch said, "Oooo, yeah, Bang Bang, we need to do the cover for that soon!"

Avi said, "I like this group I've been listening to lately, Postmodern Jukebox, they do a lot of covers and they are great, it's really jazzy, but there are some great covers."

Kevin nods and says, "I like Bang Bang too, I'm working on the music for us, guys, maybe you'll see a cover in our NYC concerts."

"Thank you everyone, that's all the time we have for today, thank you to Kirstie, Avi, and Kevin for joining us today on Superfruit. See you all in New York this fall, tickets go on sale tomorrow!"

Mitch looks at everyone and everyone nods and sings, "Gooooodbyeeeee".

Esther turns off the camera and says, "I think that is perfect just the way it is, guys, it was great!"

Kevin and Avi stand up from the floor cushions they were sitting on and Mitch says, "Kevin, you aren't going anywhere, who is this girl you are crushing on?"

Kevin smiled and said, "I'm not telling you."

Mitch frowned and said, "Kevin, you have to tell me, this sort of thing will kill me if I don't know."

"It will Kevin, and please tell him quickly," Scott said with a kidding smile.

"Maybe one day, Mitchie," Kevin said with a laugh.

Kirstie walked over to Avi and said, "So, I guess we are out there now, everyone will know this time tomorrow. You okay with that?"

"Yea, I think everyone knew anyway, well, our fans who came to the shows definitely knew something was up, the way I would look at you and sing to you." Avi said.

Kirstie smiled and leaned in and kissed Avi and hugged him, "I'm glad that it's out there, but I know there will be some disappointed fangirls."

"Stop, Kirstie, and what is this, you wanting to be the chair girl?" Avi said teasing.

"It's just something that I thought would be funny, but I think that the fans get such a kick out of, I wouldn't want to take that away from them." Kirstie said.

"Nope, you are going to be a chair girl, Kirstie, too late to back out of that one," Avi said with a loving look.

Scott looked over at Mitch and said, "I think that went really well, I still don't like not having my phone with me during the episode. And hey, what was that, telling the world I was seeing Kristie's cousin."

Mitch smiled and said, "That doesn't give anything away, I didn't show a picture of her or anything. But, now that I think of it, we should though, a quick second selfie of you two in the editing process, it'll be like a little flash. We should do that for Avi and Kirstie too."

Scott considered this and said, "Maybe, I'll check with Em."

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – NYC, Here We Come!

Friday was here before anyone knew it and everyone was waiting at the gate at the airport in LAX. Emma walked up to Mitch and Scott who were both sitting and looking at their phone. Emma sat beside Scott in an empty chair and pulled out her phone as well and texted Scott, 'Hey boyfriend, look over here.'

Scott laughed and looked up and said, "Hey, what's up?"

"I just wanted to see your face," Emma said with a cute grin.

Scott leaned over and kissed her on the cheek and she moved back, "People will see us."

"So, who cares, everyone knows that you are Kirstie's cousin, they are bound to put two and two together," Scott said with a wink.

"Yea, about that, thanks Mitch for outing us," Emma said teasingly towards Mitch who looked up and said, "You're welcome."

"So, Mitch, there's a guy who joined the crew who has this big crush on you," Emma said smiling.

"That's nice, who is he?" Mitch asked looking over at the crew around him.

"He's in New York, his name is Peter Andrews. Esther talked to him over Skype and he's going to be sort of like a tour guide for all of us, showing us around the city, where the best places are, stuff like that. We are renting out his families homes. They are a couple of brownstones near Central Park," Emma said.

"How do you know all of this before me," Mitch said.

"Because I rode over with Kirstie and Esther," Emma said laughing.

Mitch pulled up google and typed in Peter Andrews, NYC, and sifted through the possible guys. Emma reached over Scott and said, "Here's a photo, Esther took a picture during the Skype so that we would know what he looks like."

Mitch blushed and said, "You could have just showed me to begin with."

"Where's the fun in that," Em said smiling.

Mitch looked at the phone and saw a gorgeous guy with dark hair, brown eyes, and seemed to have a great smile. He looked up at Emma and said, "So, how do you know this guy has a thing for me?"

"He couldn't stop saying how amazing and talented you were and he might have confessed having a small crush on you, but he promised that it would not get in the way of how he acted around you."

Scott laughed, "Yes, it's your turn to have someone crazy for you, Mitch!" Scott then turned to Emma and said, "You aren't inviting Olivia to New York, are you?"

"Very funny, no, I'm not. She wasn't that bad, was she?" Emma said with a small smile.

She answered for Scott and Mitch by the look of both of their faces and said, "Okay, okay, no more crazy friends of mine coming to see me." They laughed and felt that the summer was so long ago.

ARRIVAL IN NYC

Hours later, they all arrived in New York City. A tall, dark haired guy, waited with a handmade sign at the airport, WELCOME PTX. Esther walked up to him and said, "Hi Peter, so nice to meet you face to face, this is everyone." Esther went around the group and introduced Peter to everyone and Peter greeted them all, "Hi Everyone, so glad that you are going to be here for a couple of months, I'll be happy to bring you to your place, I have some vans out front for us."

Mitch smiled as he walked past Peter and said, "Thank you Peter."

Peter smiled wide and said, "You are so welcome, Mitch. I have to tell you, I am such a big fan of your group."

"That's nice, thank you," Mitch said trying not to notice Peter's eyes, they were absolutely gorgeous. After a car ride, they finally arrived at the houses that Peter's family owned. They all piled out of the vans and looked up at the houses they were staying in and Esther gave out house assignments. "Okay, Avi, Kevin, Scott, Mitch, Kirstie, Emma, and I will all stay in this one. The crew will stay in this one two doors down. There should be plenty of room for us all to sleep, let me know if you need your own place or room if you can't find a roommate." Katie, one of the other assistants walked over to Esther and asked, "How come Em gets to stay in the house with the band, I want to stay with them too."

Esther smiled at one of the other newest members and said, "Well, she's family, sweetie. Same with me, I'm family too."

Katie looked surprised, "Who is she related to?"

Mitch walked by and patted Katie on the back, "Kirstie." Mitch smiled and headed into the house.

Emma smiled at Mitch, who just couldn't help being the big brother. She actually felt that she had three big brothers in this group, Avi, Kevin, and Mitch watched out for Emma all the time, especially if Scott was not around.

Avi walked into one of the room and looked down the hall for Kirstie and asked, "Are we sharing?"

"I was thinking we could, unless you and Kevin want to share," Kirstie said.

"Oh, I didn't think about that. There are enough rooms for Kevin to have his own room if he wants. I didn't know if Em was going to share with Scott or not?" Avi asked seeing Scott walk up behind Kirstie.

"There are so many rooms in this house; you know there are four floors in this house. I think we can all get our own room," Scott said.

Kirstie looked at Avi and said, "Do you still want to share?"

Avi pulled her into the room and shut the door and said, "Yes, I do."

Scott laughed as he walked down the hall and hollered out for Emma, "Em, where are you?"

"Over here," he heard from down a different hallway. He walked upstairs and turned the corner and saw a door open. He walked in and saw Emma looking out the window; this room was facing the street. He walked up behind her and hugged her and asked, "Did you have to pick the furthest room away from me?"

"I didn't, you are just down the hallway and stairs, and around the corner," Emma laughed.

"Yea, I might move to the room right beside you," Scott said with a grin.

"Scott, you will see me every day anyway, where does it matter where I sleep, I'm sure that you will be in here and I'll be in your room too," Emma said turning towards Scott and he hugged her and said, "In that case, okay."

LATER THAT EVENING….

Everyone was settled in and decided to go out to dinner, Peter had recommended a new place down the street, and Mitch invited him to join them. Peter of course, said yes.

They walked down the street to the restaurant and were caught off guard by a group of fans taking pictures and wanting autographs. Emma slid to stand behind Scott and he put his arm around her and said, "Don't, stay here, at my side."

Emma smiled unsure and nodded and was caught off guard when a girl asked, "Are you Kirstie's cousin, Emma?"

Emma nodded and said, "Yes."

The girl looked over at her friend and said, "It's her, that's who Scott is dating!"

Kirstie and Avi posed with another girl who was screaming from excitement that Kirstie wanted to make sure that she calmed down before they left.

Kevin and Mitch posed with fans and signed a few autographs as well as Scott. They whole frenzy lasted only minutes, and the fans said that they would be at the next concert and couldn't wait.

Avi, Mitch, Kevin, Scott, and Kirstie all said, "Thank you, and we will see you all then."

As they got closer to place where they were going to eat, Rosemary, Peter asked Mitch "Is it always crazy like that for you?"

Mitch smiled and said, "Sometimes, that was mild considering."

"Do you ever travel with bodyguards," Peter asked.

"Not really, we don't really have a need for them, if we are all together. We have a couple guys on the crew that will go out with us if we are alone," Mitch said.

As they walked up to the front door, Peter stepped ahead and held it open for Mitch and Mitch smiled and said, "Thank you."

Peter smiled and winked and said, "You're welcome."

Esther nudged Kirstie and said, "Did you see that?"

Kirstie grinned and said, "Yes, and it is so sweet!"

Avi leaned over to the girls and said, "What are you two talking about?"

"Nothing, just girl talk," Kirstie said with a wide grin.

They all headed into Rosemary's and had a table waiting for them in the back room. It was nice because it was away from the main part of the restaurant and no one would bother them. A couple of waiters came around the large table and said, "Hi everyone, I'm Mary, this is Roger, and we will be serving you tonight. What can I get everyone for drinks?"

Mary and Roger walked around and took drink orders and left to go put them in. Avi and Kirstie quietly whispered to one another and couldn't keep their eyes off each other as they held hands under the table. They were so in love, and Esther was so happy for her brother and her best friend. She glanced around the table and caught Kevin's eyes and noticed how he looked away quickly. She smiled and turned to Emma who was talking to Scott and Mitch. She leaned over to Emma and said, "I'm going to the bathroom, I'll be back in a few."

Emma turned to Esther and said, "Oh, I'll come too."

Esther and Emma excused themselves, but not before Kirstie could join as well. They went into the bathroom and oohed and ahhed over the large bathroom with full seating area. Esther told the girls once they were alone, "Okay, so I think that I just caught Kevin staring at me."

Kirstie smiled and so did Em. Esther looked at them both and said, "What, what is it?"

"He has a crush on you, I thought that it was a dead giveaway the other day during the Superfruit episode, he was sitting right in front of you," Kirstie said.

"He does, really, wow, that's crazy," Esther said shocked.

"What should I do?" Esther asked after a couple of minutes.

"Let it play out, take things slow," Emma said with a smile.

Just then, three girls walked in, who were the typical girls who thought that they were better than everyone. One of the girls, the tallest one of the group, shot a look to Kirstie and then whispered something. Kirstie rolled her eyes and nodded to Esther and Emma to get out of there.

"Are you Kirstie from Pentatonix?" asked a shorter girl walking up to Kirstie's back in a condescending tone.

Kirstie closed her eyes and put on a fake smile and said, "Yes, I am."

Esther and Emma flanked Kristie and faced the girl who looked them over and said, "Who are you two, her bodyguards?"

Esther and Emma glanced at each other and Kirstie glanced at them both, not liking this situation. Kirstie said, "Well, we were just leaving."

Kirstie turned around and felt a very hard pull on her hair and she screamed in reaction. "OWW, LET ME GO!" yelled Kirstie grabbing for her hair. Esther and Emma grabbed the girl's hands to pull her off of Kirstie and the other two girls that were in the background, came forward and pulled Esther and Emma off of Kirstie. They were able to easily do so, which surprised Emma. She thought that she could take them. She shot a panicked look over at Esther who was in the same position as she was. The girl grabbed Kirstie's hair and started twisted the section she had and sneered, "You will never take Avi away from me, girl, he is mine!" Kirstie was able to bend forward and she kicked one of her legs back and it caught the hair-puller off guard long enough for Kirstie to turn around and shove her.

"You better not shove me, Kirstie," the short girl said.

At this time, a girl walked in and saw the situation and left immediately. The girls who were holding Esther and Emma said, "Come on Becki, we need to get out of here, that girl is going to go get some manager!"

Esther and Emma still continued to pull free of the death grips that the girls had and Esther said, "You know who I am, I'm Avi's sister, you are crazy if you think he would ever want a girl like you."

Esther's felt the sting before she even realized that she was slapped hard, across the face. Kirstie yelled, "Leave her alone, now!" Emma yelled too, "Let us go!"

The girl who had walked in went shyly up to the table where the band were all sitting, talking, and laughing. Mitch saw the girl standing there and smiled and said, "Hey."

"Um, I think that your friends are in trouble. Three girls are trying to start a fight with them in the bathroom," the quiet girl said looking at Mitch.

Mitch shot up as well as Scott, Kevin, and Avi. They walked over to the girl's bathroom and Avi went in and saw the scene before him. Scott, Kevin, and Mitch opened the door and saw it as well. As soon as the three mean girls saw the guys, stop completely. The two girls that were holding onto Esther and Emma let go and Esther slapped the girl back across the face and yelled, "Don't ever slap me again, girl!"

Emma turned to the girl that was holding onto her and screamed, "Get out of here, now!" They both walked by the guys who got evil glares as they walked past and they saw a manager waiting for them when they got out to the lobby. The shorter girl, the leader of the mini evil pack, Becki, had let go of Kirstie's hair which made Kristie bend down to her knees in tears. Becki walked up to Avi and smiled widely and said, "Hello Avi."

Avi glared at her and didn't say a word and walked over to Kirstie, picked her up to a standing position, and asked, "Are you okay sweetie?"

Kirstie wiped her eyes and nodded into Avi and said, "Yea, I will be."

She then glared at Becki and said, "Becki, you better get out of my sight before I call the cops right now!"

Becki walked out of the bathroom only to see an angry manager there with her two friends, they were all being kicked out of the restaurant. Esther and Emma walked over to Kirstie and Emma said, "I'm so sorry, Kirstie, I tried to get free, and I couldn't."

Kirstie rubbed her head and said, "I know, I know. God, we can't even go to the girl's bathroom anymore. I'm fine, let's go back to dinner. I'm not letting that bitch ruin my evening."

Avi looked at Kirstie's scalp and rubbed it a little bit and kissed her head and said, "Okay."

Avi then looked over at Esther who had a red mark on her face and said, "You okay?"

"Yea, I will be," Esther said walking up to the mirror and placing a cold hand towel on her cheek.

The girls headed back to the table and sat down and were happy to see their drinks and some food had arrived. The manager came over and apologized for the disturbance of the three girls, the shy girl, had filled the manager in on everything, and once confronted, the two friends of Becki confessed to everything. The manager said, "Your meal will be on the house tonight. I absolutely love your group and I can't imagine anyone hurting any one of you. That will not be happening again."

"That's so nice of you, thank you," Kirstie said with a slight smile.

Avi wrapped some ice in a cloth napkin and held it on Kirstie's head and she turned and said, "What are you doing?"

"This will help, it's only for a little bit," Avi said with a forced smile. Kirstie could tell he was upset.

"Avi, don't be upset, you didn't know queen bitch, and her two crazies were going to be coming after me," Kirstie said. She didn't want to worry Avi with the reason that everything started, so she kept quiet. Mitch left the table and said, "I'll be back in just a minute, okay."

Mitch walked around the restaurant floor and found the table where the shy girl from earlier was sitting with her family, her eyes widen when she saw Mitch standing at her table and her parents looked at Mitch and said, "Hello there."

Mitch smiled and said, "Hello, I just wanted to thank your daughter for helping out my friends tonight, it was brave to come get help and to tell the manager what was going on. I wanted to give you some tickets to one of our shows here. Just email this address and we will get those for you and your family."

The girl smiled and said, "Wow, thank you. That is so great of you, but you don't have to do that."

"Yes we do, and you are so welcome," Mitch smiled and walked away back to the back room.

He sat down and smiled over at Scott and said, "Found the girl from before and gave her some tickets, it's the least that I can do. Esther, they will email you later with a date that they want to go too."

Esther smiled and said, "Of course."

Scott looked over at Emma and said, "How's your wrists?"

Emma said, "They are fine, but I should have been able to get free, I wanted to help Kirstie."

"It's okay, everyone is okay now, that's all that matter," Scott said with a kiss to her cheek.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 - 3AM

The group arrived back home after they finished their meal and dropped Peter back home. They were all sitting around the living room talking about everything that happened. Kirstie was still surprised that it all went down, "I can't believe that some girl would just walk up to me and pull my hair."

"How's your head, sweetie," Avi asked rubbing his fingers on Kirstie's head.

"It doesn't hurt anymore," Kirstie said with a smile towards him.

"Maybe you should carry mace on you," Mitch said from across the room.

"Yea, that's not a bad idea," Kirstie said with a nod.

"Let's change the subject and talk about the show that's in a couple of days," Kevin said trying to make the mood lighter.

"Not tonight, Kev," Kirstie said standing up and yawning, "I'm so tired right now."

"First thing in the morning, then, at breakfast," Kevin said looking around the room for answers.

Everyone gradually agreed and started slowly getting up and moving towards their rooms.

Avi and Kirstie headed towards her room and shut the door behind them. Avi grabbed Kirstie's hand and she turned around and he pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her and said, "I'm glad you are okay, I hate to think that someone hurt you tonight and I wasn't there to stop it."

"But you did stop it, the girls stopped as soon as they saw y'all," Kirstie said with a smile and then added, "And I have never been so happy to see your face in my life."

"Next time, I'm waiting outside the door," Avi said.

"No, I'll be fine, I can't be afraid of going to a public bathroom," Kirstie replied. Kirstie slowly pulled away and walked over to her suitcase that was on the bed and looked through her sleepwear options. After a few minutes, she decided on gray pajama bottoms and a pink t-shirt. She looked over at Avi and said, "I'm going to get ready for bed, see you in a few." She headed into the bathroom and shut the door behind her and locked it. As soon as she was alone, she ran the water in the sink and sat on the edge of the bathtub and placed her hands on her face and cried. She finally felt that she could let it out and she didn't have to hold it in and be brave. She cried her anger as well as her fear out. She was not going to be afraid of some little girl. The girl who attacked her had the upper hand because she caught Kirstie off guard. How was she going to say hello to her fans not knowing if Becki would be in the crowd or not? She made a mental note to contact the restaurant to see if they had a photo that she could have so that the security team could make sure that they would not enter the show. After a few more minutes of pulling herself together, she washed her face, brushed her teeth, and combed her hair. She changed into her pajamas and headed back into the bedroom where Avi was resting on the bed with his phone in hand. She came over and crawled into bed and leaned against Avi's arm and said, "What are you doing?"

"Just checking twitter and emails," Avi said leaning over and kissing Kirstie's forehead.

"You okay?" Avi asked giving Kirstie a loving look.

Kirstie nodded and leaned back onto her pillow. She looked at Avi and said, "Good night, honey. Love you."

Avi placed his phone on his nightstand and leaned over and kissed Kirstie and said, "Good night, baby. Love you more."

Meanwhile…. (Rewind a little bit)

Kevin walked over to Esther as the group was all going into their bedrooms and reached for her arm and said, "You okay, Esther, you have been so quiet."

Esther looked into Kevin's eyes and noticed that he was looking at her differently than he used too, or maybe it was the way that he always looked at her, and she was just noticing now. She smiled and said, "Yea, just tired, thanks Kev."

"Just making sure, I wouldn't want anything to happen to you," Kevin said softly as he gave her a small hug. Esther picked up on his demeanor and thought that he was being really sweet. She smiled again and said, "Night, Kevin."

"Good night, Esther," Kevin said as they headed their separate ways.

Scott and Emma headed back to her bedroom and she stopped short of the door and said, "Will you sleep in my room tonight?"

Scott nodded and said, "Of course."

Emma smiled and they headed into the bedroom and got ready for sleep. Scott told Emma, "I'll be right back, just going to go get my things down the hall, okay."

Emma replied back, "Okay, I'm going to get ready for bed."

Scott said okay and headed down the hall. He felt like someone was watching him and he turned around and no one was there. He got to his room and got his stuff and saw that Mitch's door was open. He popped his head in and said, "Mitch, I'm sleeping in Em's room tonight."

Mitch smiled and said, "We both knew that's where you were going to be."

"I didn't know for sure, she asked though. Okay, so, in the hall just now, I had the feeling that someone was watching me," Scott said looking behind him again.

Mitch looked up with wide eyes and walked over to the doorway and looked behind Scott towards the hallway and then looked at Scott and said, "Do not say something like that and then leave me alone, I'm going to be freaking out all night."

"Mitchie, you are fine. It was just a weird feeling," Scott said with a smile.

"Seriously, this place is creepy at night, I'm coming to sleep with y'all," Mitch said with a laugh.

"Um, no," Scott said.

"Just kidding, I'll call up Peter to come and rescue me," Mitch said.

Scott smiled and said, "I thought that you liked him."

"Maybe, okay, shoo, go back to your girlfriend. I'm going to be locking this door after you walk away and sleep with headphones on. I am not going to get freaked out at night with noises of this house," Mitch said.

Scott laughed as he headed down the hallway and turned to see Mitch close his door and true to his word, Scott heard the door lock. Scott walked down the hallway into the bedroom where Emma was already in bed. He got ready for bed quickly and got into the bed and scooted up beside Emma and she moved into the curve of his body and he held her as they both drifted off to sleep.

3:00 AM

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed someone.

Kirstie shot up in her bed and shook a snoring Avi. Avi stirred awake and said, "What, what's going on? What time is it?"

Kirstie leaned over and turned her lamp on that was sitting on her nightstand and she grabbed her phone and unlocked it and said, "Avi, did you hear that scream? It's three in the morning."

Avi sat up and said, "What scream?"

Avi rubbed his eyes and pulled his legs to the side of the bed and stood up and walked towards the door with Kirstie walking right behind him. "Are you sure you heard a scream?"

"Yes, it was so loud," Kirstie said.

Avi looked at Kirstie and said, "You stay here, I'll go check."

Kirstie took one look at Avi and said, "No, you don't, I'm coming to check with you."

Avi said, "Okay, let me grab my phone first."

With phones in hand, Avi and Kirstie slowly walked into the hallway and Kirstie leaned over and turned on the hall light which was a lot brighter than they both were ready for as they both squinted. They got to Kevin's door and Avi said, "Go check on Esther, I'll check on Kevin." Kirstie nodded and headed towards Esther's door and opened it slowly and found Esther sleeping peacefully. She came back and found Avi standing in the hallway confirming Kevin was sleeping too. Avi said, "Are you sure you heard a scream, Esther would have woken up if she heard it? Let's go back to bed."

"No, I need to check on Em at least, it sounded like a woman's scream," Kirstie said.

Avi sensed the fear in Kirstie's voice and nodded and put his arm around her and said, "Okay, it's fine, let's go check."

They came to Mitch's door first and Avi slowly turned the handle only to find it locked and said, "He's fine, he locked the door."

"Okay," Kirstie said.

They headed towards Emma's room and slowly opened the door and Kirstie saw Emma sleeping with Scott's arms wrapped around her. She giggled at the sight of her cousin sleeping with her best friend. For some reason, it made her laugh. Avi tried to quiet Kirstie by putting his hand over her mouth, but it was too late, Scott had reached over and turned the lamp on and said, "What the hell, guys, it's so late."

Kirstie laughed, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, let's go Avi."

Avi shook his head and said, "We'll tell you in the morning, go back to sleep, Scott."

Scott nodded and said, "Okay."

Emma slowly rose and saw Avi and Kirstie walk out of the room and Scott turned towards her and said, "Go back to sleep, everything is okay, Kirstie is just being silly."

Emma laid back down as Scott turned off the light and Emma said, "Next time, I'm locking the door."

Scott chuckled and said, "Okay."

Avi and Kirstie made it back to their room before busting out laughing. Kirstie said, "Oh my gosh! I don't know why I laughed."

Avi said, "Just come back to bed, sweetie, it was nothing obviously. Let's get back to sleep."

"Okay, maybe it was my dream, I don't know, but it seemed so real." Kirstie said lying back down.

Avi and Kirstie were lying peacefully beside each other as they both tried to go back to sleep. Avi rolled over on his side and Kirstie rolled over on her side.

3:30 AM

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" screamed someone again.

Avi shot up in bed this time as well as Kirstie. Scott and Emma both heard the scream this time also. All four headed into the hallway and into the living room and found each other there.

"What the hell was that?" Scott said looking around.

"That's what woke me up the first time, that's what I heard Avi, that's why we checked on everyone," Kirstie said.

"Have y'all checked on Esther, Kevin, and Mitch?" Emma asked nervously.

"Yea, we checked on Kevin and Esther last time, they were both sleeping soundly. Mitch had his door locked, I assumed he was fine." Avi said.

"Oh yea, he said that he was going to sleep with headphones on, so he wouldn't hear anything. We need to figure out where that scream is coming from now," Scott said pacing the living room.

Emma reached for Scott's arm because she was starting to freak out herself and Scott sensed that and placed his arm around her.

"Do we need to call the cops or something?" Kirstie asked.

"Maybe it's from outside or something," Avi said walking over to the front door.

"Well, don't open it," Kirstie said.

"I'm not going to open the door, babe, I'm just going to look outside," Avi said. He looked outside and everything seemed peaceful, it seemed quiet.

They all sat in the living room and there was no way that Kirstie was going back to sleep tonight. She was freaked out completely. After Avi and Scott made their rounds again, they came back to the living room and assured Emma and Kirstie that everyone was okay. Avi sat down on the couch and leaned back and placed his arm around Kirstie and she leaned back into his side. He leaned his head against hers and she finally drifted off to sleep eventually.

NEXT MORNING

Mitch woke up and took his headphones off and stretched back onto his bed and yawned. He got up and went to the bathroom and got ready for the morning, brushed his hair, his teeth, and washed his face. He threw on a robe and headed out towards the kitchen and was surprised to see Scott, Emma, Avi, and Kirstie all sleeping in the living room. He grabbed his phone and snapped a quick photo and smiled. He walked over to the kitchen and reached for a cup and it slipped out of his hands and it broke on the floor sending the four sleepers in the living room into a panicked frenzy. Mitch quickly walked over and said, "Guys, guys, it's okay, it was just me, I broke a cup, what is going on? Why did y'all sleep in the living room?"

Scott plopped back down on the sofa as Emma did too and Scott looked over at Mitch and said, "We all heard someone screaming last night, Kirstie heard them twice, the rest of us heard them the second time."

"Whaatt?" Mitch asked walking back over to the broken cup.

"It's true, Mitchie, when I heard it around 3, I woke up Avi and we made our rounds checking on everyone. When we got to Emma's room, I starting laughing at the site of her sleeping in bed with Scott for some reason, and I woke them up. Sorry guys." Kirstie said looking over at Emma.

"Why was it so funny?" Emma asked.

"It's not, I'm just not used to you having adult sleepovers, especially with one of my best friends," Kirstie said.

"I'm glad that I didn't hear the screams. That would have freaked me out, Scott already freaked me out last night, that's why I went to sleep with headphones on and locked my door," Mitch said.

"Oh yea, I forgot about that, I felt like someone was in the hallway watching me last night, it was really weird," Scott said.

Emma said, "Okay, that's it, I'm moving over to the other house, this house must be haunted and I can't sleep here."

Scott wrapped his arms around Emma and said, "No, you need to stay here in this house. I'll protect you. It's not haunted."

Kevin and Esther came into the room and Kirstie screamed at Esther, "Oh my god, what happened to your hair?"

Esther looked over in the mirror on the wall and saw that about 6 inches of her hair was cut off on one side. She reached for the missing hair and looked back at Kirstie and said, "What the hell! Who cut my hair; this is so not a funny prank."

Avi stood up and walked over to Esther and looked at her cut hair and then went to her bedroom and looked around for clues. Esther came into her bedroom and said, "What are you doing?"

"Someone was in your room last night, we heard screams, Scott felt that someone was watching him in the hall, I think someone is messing with all of us," Avi said.

"Someone was screaming? I didn't hear anything, why would they cut my hair?" Esther said as she sat and starting crying over her cut hair, she felt violated, that someone was that close to her while she was sleeping and she didn't wake up.

Avi stopped and sat beside Esther and said, "Don't cry sis, it's okay, I'll find out who did this. You can't help that you are a heavy sleeper. You sleep through everything. I see that your window was unlocked, did you unlock that last night?"

"No, I never even checked to see if it was locked to begin with?" Esther said wiping her face. She then said, "I'm going to have to go get my hair fixed today; I can't go out in public like this."

Kirstie came into Esther's room and sat on the other side of Esther and said, "I'll go with you, you are going to look so cute with shorter hair, don't worry, we will find out who did this."

TO BE CONTINUED…


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"Girls, we did so good last night, did you see their faces?" Becki said with a satisfying grin sitting down on the chair in her bedroom as her two followers sat on her bed. Jess and Lisa looked at one another and then back over to Becki who was eyeing them now. Jess, the youngest of the friends, cleared her throat, and said, "Becki, I think we have done enough, don't you. We scared them pretty bad last night, we almost got caught too."

"Jess, you aren't getting scared now, are you?" Becki shot back at her.

Jess shook her head and stood up and said, "Okay, well, I need to get back home; my mom is going to freak out that I have been out all night when she sees that I am not in my room."

Becki stood up, even though she was the smallest of the group, she was the scariest of them all; she was tough and strong, despite her small size. Becki stood between the door and Jess and stared down Jess and said, "You aren't going to run and tell mommy what we did, are you? That would not be good."

Jess shook her head and swallowed back her shaking voice and said, "Of course not, Becki, now let me go, I'll catch up with you later. You know, we still have school today."

Becki looked down at her arm and saw that it was almost 7. She walked over to her chair again and sighed and fell back into it saying, "I think I'll pass today, I'm tired."

Jess waved and said, "Okay, I'll see you later." With that Lisa stood up and waved quietly and left too. Becki watched the two girls leave and she closed her door and locked it and went to her bed and fell into it and was sleeping almost instantly.

Outside, Lisa looked over at Jess as they walked back to their houses down the street and said, "I think we went too far too, I didn't know that Becki was going to cut her hair."

"What have we gotten ourselves into? We are traumatizing our favorite group? Why are we hanging out with Becki anyway? She is turning into such a bully, she bullies us too, I'm so over this crap with her," Jess said in a huff.

Lisa said, "You better not let Becki hear you talk like that, if you wanted out of the group so bad, why did you hold off those girls last night in the bathroom?"

"I was scared of what was going to happen, I was scared of getting caught, well, we sort of did get caught, we can't go back to that restaurant, they even have our photo now," Jess said.

Lisa agreed and said, "Yea, I think we went too far last night with the whole breaking into their house."

"Should we come clean with them? Maybe we can just tell Peter?" Jess said looking sideways at Lisa.

"No, we can't. Peter would kill me. He has no idea I was at the restaurant and I didn't know that he was going to be hanging out with them. Do not tell my brother anything!" Lisa said sternly. Lisa knew that Peter would be really disappointed in her if he ever knew that she was involved with disturbing Pentatonix's stay here in New York in one of their family's homes.

Back at the house with PTX…

Esther combed her hair after getting out of the shower and held back her tears. She wiped the mirror with her hand and looked at her reflection and took a deep breath and pulled her hair back into a ponytail. She was thankful that at least her hair was still long enough for that. She threw on a ball cap and pulled the ponytail through the back loop and finished getting ready. She headed out into her bedroom and started packing up her things. Avi knocked at her door and she answered, "Come in."

Avi walked in and saw that she was packing up her things and he said, "What are you doing?"

"I'm not staying here another night, Avi, I can't. I didn't think that anyone would want to stay here another night. I'm going to find us some nice secured hotel rooms, or at least me a room. I checked with the other house, they said everything was fine, nothing happened over there," Esther said as she zipped her bag closed. She picked up her bag and placed it on the floor next to some other small bags she had already packed.

Avi nodded and leaned over and picked up her biggest bag and said, "Yea, I don't think any of us want to stay here another night. Do you want me to make the calls to the hotels and find us a place?"

Esther looked at her brother and smiled and said, "You are so sweet, that would be amazing if you could. But, I don't mind. I'm heading to the salon with Kirstie and then I'll come back over here. I'll call Peter on my way and let him know what has happened."

Avi smiled and said, "I think Peter might already know because Mitch called him, he's on his way over."

"Oh, okay," Esther said as she grabbed her other bags and they both headed to the living room.

Mitch was sitting in the living room waiting on Peter and he saw Esther and Avi with all of Esther's bags and Mitch stood up and said, "How are you Esther?"

"I'm okay, Mitch, is Kirstie around?" Esther asked looking around.

"Yea, I just saw her walk back towards her bedroom, looks like she might have had the same idea as you, I see," Mitch said.

Esther looked down at her bags and explained to Mitch that she would be looking for a new place. Mitch smiled and said, "I think that would be great, this place gives me the creeps now."

There was a knock at the door and Mitch stood up and said, "That must be Peter, I called him."

Mitch walked past Esther and Esther nodded and said, "Yea, Avi told me. Thanks for calling him."

Mitch greeted Peter at the door and invited him in. Peter walked past Esther and her luggage and sat down on the couch across from where Mitch sat and he looked around the room from Mitch to Avi to Esther to Kevin and Emma who joined them now. Peter said, "I'm so sorry about everything that you all have been experiencing here in New York since you arrived, from the incident at the restaurant to everything that happened last night here in the house. I promise you, this house is not haunted, I don't know what happened, but I will get to the end of it."

Mitch said, "Thank you Peter, I don't know about everyone else, but I just don't feel comfortable staying here. Last night really freaked some of us out."

"Yea, I wanted to let you know that I put in some calls and found some Penthouse rooms for you all. I was able to get some rooms; each room has three to five bedrooms. Just call this number and they will have everything ready for you," Peter said placing a card on the coffee table in front of him.

Esther was the first to speak, "Wow, Peter, that is so wonderful of you, I didn't expect you to do that."

"Well, it's the least that I can do. You are my guest here in my home town," Peter said standing.

Mitch stood as well and walked over to Peter and said, "Thank you Peter. That was really nice of you."

"It's really nothing Mitch, I would do anything for you," Peter said with a smile.

Mitch smiled and watched as Peter said goodbye to everyone else and headed out of the house. Once he was gone, Mitch leaned over and picked up the card on the table. Mitch gasped and placed his hand over his mouth and looked up at the group who were all looking at him. Kevin said, "What is it Mitchie?"

"Y'all won't believe where we are going to stay, we are going to be in penthouse suites at the Ritz-Carlton!" Mitch said smiling and adding, "Mommy is going to pack now."

Mitch ran off to his room and saw Scott and Kirstie in the hall and told them the news and they both seemed relieved.

Later that day

Peter was in the living room with his father going over the events of the past couple of days and explained where the group was headed. They stopped talking as Peter's sister walked into the room. "Hi Lisa, how was school?" their father asked.

Lisa smiled and said, "It was okay, did I just hear that you said Pentatonix is moving out of the house?"

Peter looked over at her and nodded, "Yea, they are going to be staying in a hotel now."

"A Hotel, where?" Lisa asked almost too eagerly.

"I made a call to your uncle, he's taking care of them at his hotel," their father, Mike Andrews, said.

Peter looked back at his dad and said, "Thanks again, dad, for helping me out with this one. I really don't know what happened with the house, we have never had an issue before. Good thing we installed the security cameras last week around the outside of the house, we can see what happened."

"Security cameras?!" Lisa shrieked.

"Lisa, what is going on with you?" Mike asked his daughter.

"Nothing, nothing, I'm fine. Uh, Peter, where exactly are those security cameras located?" Lisa asked trying to sound more calmly.

"There are two on the front entrance and two on the back entrance, we should be able to see if anyone was going into the home or leaving. I got some details from the band and I'll be able to watch the footage later, dad wants to help me with it," Peter said noticing Lisa's freak out moment.

Lisa quickly turned around and headed towards her bedroom and she pulled out her phone and quickly texted Becki and Jess to fill them in on the details. She paced around her bedroom waiting for them to text her back. She was expecting Peter to be standing there in her doorway. She screamed a little bit and said, "Peter, what are you doing?"

"What's going on Lisa, you are acting really weird. Why did you want to know about the security cameras?" Peter said folding his arms in front of him trying to figure out what was going on. He heard Lisa's phone buzz and buzz again.

"Peter, I'm fine, I just uh," said Lisa looking down at her phone seeing Becki's urgent message to call her now. Lisa looked back up at Peter and said, "I need to call my friend, okay, I'm fine, really."

Peter shrugged his shoulders and said, "Okay, if you say so."

He headed down the hallway hearing Lisa's door shut and click. He could hear her talking, but couldn't make out who she was calling.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – First Show in NYC

It's been a couple of days and everything has fallen back into the normal routine that the band likes to have during tour. Esther got a fantastic new hairstyle with long layers and you would never even know that part of her hair was chopped off in her sleep. No one in Pentatonix knows the girls that broke into their home that night was Becki, Jess, or Lisa. The security tapes are being reviewed as quickly as possible, but Peter and his father, Mike has yet to discover anything yet. Lisa has been keeping a close eye on the outcome of what they have found wondering if she should just give in and confess to everything. Mitch, Scott, Avi, Kirstie, and Kevin were all preparing for their show tonight, finally, their first show of their fall tour. They were so excited for tonight. Sound check and rehearsal was going great and they absolutely loved the theatre they were playing, it was an old church that was turned into a really cool theatre where concerts, plays, and other special events were held.

After finishing their last song, they all got some water and took a seat on some stools around the stage. "I needed this, this was great today. I think tonight's show will be amazing," Kirstie beamed.

"Yes, I'm happy to get back on the stage again, after a crazy start, maybe this tour will go back to being normal, you know," Avi said looking around the empty theatre. He waved to Esther who was sitting in the middle with Emma. Scott glanced over towards Esther and Emma and smiled and turned back to the group, "So, there's something that we haven't talked about Kirstie."

"What's that?" Kirstie asked puzzled.

Avi laughed as well as Kevin and Mitch, they knew what was coming, as they had all talked about it. Avi stood up and walked over to Kirstie and reached out his hand and said, "This one is for you, Kirstie."

Kirstie laughed and said, "I was kidding guys, I am not going to be the chair girl, you can't hold me to that."

Avi grabbed Kirstie's hand and brought her to a chair in the middle of the stage. He leaned into Kirstie and said, "What's your name?"

She rolled her eyes playfully and said, "Kirstie."

He said, "Kirstie, what a beautiful name, may we sing to you?"

Kirstie laughed out loud and said, "Sure, Avi, sing to me."

Avi looked out into the theatre and said, "She said yes!"

Mitch started the song off and instead of Scott singing the lead; Avi took over as lead of the song as the others sang along and Kirstie knew she was blushing, but enjoyed Avi's singing and attention. Avi danced around her and sat in her lap while the other guys stayed in the background. She smiled and giggled through the whole song and when it was over, she clapped her hands together and said, "That was amazing Avi!" Avi leaned in and kissed her and Kirstie smiled.

"Way to go, Avi!" Emma screamed towards the stage standing up and cheering as Esther stood and cheered as well.

"Okay, okay, you had your fun; we are not doing that in the show tonight, okay. Let's just do it as we always do," Kirstie said laughing.

Avi and the guys shared a look and Avi nodded in agreement, they were going to do the exact same thing in the show, the fans would love it.

Scott jumped down from the stage and headed over to Emma as she walked towards him. "That was awesome, you should so that tonight!" Emma said as they reached each other.

"We are, but keep it quiet, Kirstie thinks that we aren't, but I think that Avi really enjoyed it," Scott said whispering.

"I might be biased, but you were amazing today!" Emma said excitedly.

"You know, I wish I could bring you up on stage too," Scott said into Emma's ear.

Emma leaned back and said, "I don't think that your fans would like that, I like being in the background, I'm not made for all of this. I like being your cheering section," Emma said with a wide smile.

Scott leaned in and kissed Emma and said, "One day, I'm going to tell the world about you, Em. One day."

Emma smiled and said, "Just give me a heads up, okay. I need to find an escape route from your manic fans."

Kevin walked over to Esther and said, "Hey Esther, how are you doing?"

Esther put a piece of her hair behind her ear and smiled and said, "Hey Kevin, I'm okay, you were great today! The show will be amazing tonight!"

Kevin smiled softly and said, "Thank you Esther, I meant to tell you earlier, I love your hair like that."

Esther grinned and felt her cheeks get warm and she smiled and said, "Well, it'll have to do, I haven't really had layers before, but I really like it now."

Kevin reached out and touched a section of her hair and realized what he was doing and dropped her hair and said, "Sorry about that, I was just… anyways, your hair looks great like that."

Esther laughed and wondered if this was Kevin flirting. She smiled and said, "Thanks Kevin."

Kevin smiled and quickly walked away shaking his head wondering what in the world was he thinking reaching for her hair like that. He walked pass Mitch and said, "I'll be in the dressing room."

Mitch nodded and smiled and looked back towards Esther who was watching Kevin. Mitch jumped up and walked over to Esther and said, "Esther, is that a grin I see on your face?"

"Stop Mitchie, I know what you are trying to do," Esther said turning around and going back to her seat.

Mitch said, "What am I trying to do?"

"Come on, I know you, I know that look, that grin on your face," Esther said pointing towards Mitch's grin.

Mitch smiled and said, "Well, you and Kevin would be really cute together, you should tell him you like him, I know he likes you."

"Kevin does not like me, Mitch, we are just friends." Esther said sitting down looking through her papers trying to look busy. She wasn't sure if she was ready to have this discussion with Mitch knowing that he would go see Kevin and tell him, Mitch just couldn't help himself, he loved putting people together.

"I hate to say you are wrong, but girl, you are so wrong. If you could see the way that Kevin looks at you, you would know in a heartbeat that he likes you," Mitch said.

"Okay, can we please not discuss this hear in front of everyone," Esther said looking around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation.

"I'm just teasing you, Esther, but seriously, I think that he likes you, you should say something to him if you like him too," Mitch said sitting down beside her in the empty seat.

Esther said, "I'll think about it, but can we change the subject for now?"

"Oh, I finally got a photo from that restaurant, Rosemary's. I can give this photo to the security team and these three girls will not be allowed in tonight," Esther said pulling the photo out of her bag.

"How will our security team of four people keep three girls out of a theatre that will hold 3000 people? How will we able to look at that many people?" Mitch asked concerned.

"I don't know, we will make copies and have everyone be on the lookout, we will try our best to make sure that they aren't here, that's all I can do at this point," Esther sighed.

"Esther, you are doing an amazing job, we don't expect you do everything for us, we will keep an eye out too, plus we will have the security team at the bottom of the stage as well during the show," Mitch said patting Esther's shoulder in reassurance.

"Thanks Mitch, I'm trying. Oh, I got those VIPS tickets for Peter and his sister; you said that he had a younger sister, right?" Esther said looking through her stuff.

"Yea, I think she's still in school, um, what's her name, ah, I think it's Lisa. That will be great, thanks Esther. I'll let Peter know to pick them up at will call," Mitch said pulling out his phone.

Peter got the text from Mitch and went to knock on Lisa's door and told her that he had a big surprise for her tonight and for her to get ready. Lisa seemed puzzled and was relieved to be doing something other than worry about her father or brother finding out about what she and her friends did to their guest, Pentatonix. She got in Peter's car and asked, "So, where are we going?"

"It's a surprise, but I guess I can tell you, we are going to the Pentatonix concert tonight, I know that you are a fan and you haven't had a chance to meet them yet since they are staying at the Ritz now," Peter said waiting for Lisa to scream with joy.

When no sounds came, Peter glanced over and saw Lisa's face in her hands and she was crying. He pulled the car over and said, "Lisa, Lisa, what's wrong?" He placed his hand on her shoulder.

"I can't go tonight, I'm sorry Peter, I'm so sorry. I should have told you," Lisa sobbed.

"Should have told me what? What's going on?" Peter asked now getting worried.

Lisa sobbed into her hands on the verge of telling Peter everything. She was tired of keeping secrets from her brother, he was her best friend. She felt like such a horrible person for everything that she did, all just trying to get Becki to like her. She knew that she went too far when they broke into the house the other night and it was only a matter of time before the truth would come out. The sad part was that she did love Pentatonix and loved their music.

Peter hugged Lisa as she cried and he said, "Whatever it is Lisa, you can tell me, you are freaking me out, just tell me what is going on?"

"It was me," Lisa got out between sobs.

Peter asked, "What was you?"

"I broke into the house the other night and scared Pentatonix. I also went into a bathroom at Rosemary's and held a girl, I don't know who she was, some member of the crew, anyways, I held her by her wrists while Becki attacked Kirstie and Jess held Esther, Avi's sister," cried Lisa. Now, that the truth had escaped her lips, the flood gate of tears released and she was really crying now. After a few moments, she looked over at Peter who was looking straight in front of them.

He turned and looked at her with the strictest look she had ever seen and said, "Did Becki and Jess also break into the house as well?"

Lisa nodded and then said, "Peter, I'm so sorry. I didn't know that Becki was going to cut Esther's hair, I thought that it was going to be a silly game, just scare them a little bit."

"Becki, Jess, and you were the girls from the bathroom that night, and you broke into our own home where we had guests staying and scared the crap out of them!" Peter said loudly.

Peter pulled out his phone and dialed a number and Lisa panicked and said, "No, what are you doing?"

"Shut up, you don't get to talk right now," Peter snapped.

Lisa sat back and pulled out her phone and texted Jess and Becki and decided to come clean and just tell them. She listened to Peter's side of the conversation and realized unfortunately that he was talking to their father. Peter handed the phone over to Lisa and said, "Dad wants to talk to you."

Lisa felt her stomach jump into her throat and swallowed and said, "Yes", into the phone.

Mike Andrews, who normally was a calm, reasonable man, was beyond furious at his fifteen year old daughter in this moment, "Lisa! Jane! Andrews! You get back to this house immediately! You and I have a lot to talk about and you better hope and pray that group does not press charges against you and your friends! Now, put me back on the phone with Peter, I have nothing to say to you right now until you get home!"

Lisa didn't say a word, just handed the phone back to Peter and looked out the window waiting for the car to be turned around and realizing how close she was to being a VIP at the concert with Pentatonix.

The group was getting ready to start and everyone was drinking some water backstage. Esther came over to Mitch and said, "Mitch, Peter just texted me and he can't make it, some sort of family emergency. He said that he would call you later."

Mitch frowned and said, "Hope everything is okay with him."

Scott, Kevin, Avi, Kirstie, and Mitch all joined together and said a quick prayer before the show started and the curtain raised and the crowd roared as they headed out onto stage. There was a loud scream right before the crowd got quieter and Kirstie knew that scream, it was the same scream she heard that night. She shot a look over to Avi and raised her eyebrows. They started singing their first song in their set and Kirstie searched the crowd.

She heard it again, the shrieking scream that woke her up at 3AM just a few nights ago. Kirstie stopped singing and Scott and Mitch glanced over at her to see what was going on. They followed her line of sight and saw that Kirstie was pointing to a short girl walking towards the stage. Kirstie looked over at Avi who was putting himself in front of her and he stopped the concert. The group gathered around Kirstie as she pointed out Becki and Avi talked with Security. The crowd was unsure of what was going on, Kevin assured them that it was just a sound issue. The security looked towards the direction of Becki and quickly walked towards her. Becki saw that she was going to get caught, so she ran out of the theatre. She was faster because she was able to dart around the people quicker. As she ran out of sight, Avi came back over to Kirstie and whispered in her ear, "Are you okay?"

Kirstie shook her head and said, "That was that scream, she was in the house. She came into the house while we were sleeping."

Avi hugged Kirstie and said, "It's okay, we will get her, okay." Kirstie and Avi walked to the back of the stage while Scott and Mitch and Kevin tried to please the crowd with some questions and answers. Scott said, "Okay, we are going to start singing very soon, let me go get those two lovebirds, backstage."

The crowd cheered and Scott headed backstage and saw Kirstie sitting on a step and Avi with his arm over her back. Scott leaned down and faced Kirstie and said, "Kir, can you do this tonight?"

Kirstie looked up and nodded and said, "Yea, let's do this, our fans deserve a great show."

Avi smiled and kissed Kirstie's cheek and said, "I'm right here, I won't let anything happen to you, none of us will."

Kirstie smiled and said, "I know."

They all headed back out to the front of the stage and Mitch and Kevin glanced over at Kirstie and smiled to get reassurance that she was okay. The crowd erupted in cheers and Kirstie could feel the love from the crowd and knew that it would be one of their best shows. She would deal with the whole Becki thing later.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 – Facing the Music

Peter and Lisa waited in the large elaborate lobby of The Ritz. Lisa paced around and Peter said, "Stop pacing, Lisa, they should be here any minute."

"I can't believe that you are going to make me face them and tell them what I did with my friends, this is humiliating, Peter."

"You are lucky that it is me with you right now, and not our father. He is so pissed right now," Peter said sternly.

"Okay, fine, I just don't really see this being necessary to do tonight, after their big show, we can always come back in the morning," Lisa said pleading trying anything to get out of her current situation.

Peter didn't respond, just walked around and found a seat near the entrance and sat and waited patiently. Lisa gave in and sat in a nearby chair and pulled out her phone to where Peter could not see it. She had been in constant contact with Jess, but had not heard from Becki at all. Lisa didn't know that Becki had shown up at the concert. She was texting with Jess telling her of what she was about to do and Jess asked if she should come too. She was sorry as well, and wanted to apologize to the group. Lisa glanced over at Peter and got up and sat in the chair next to him. She looked at Peter and said, "I have been texting with Jess and she wants to come and apologize too."

Peter looked over at Lisa and said, "That's fine, but she needs to get here soon."

Lisa texted Jess and asked when she could come and Jess said, '10 minutes.'

Lisa told Peter when Jess would arrive and he asked, "What about Becki?"

"I don't know where Becki is, she won't answer any of my calls or texts," Lisa said.

"Well, maybe it's best if Becki is not here, I don't think that would be a good idea," Peter said.

Peter pulled out his phone and texted Mitch, 'Hey Mitch, sorry I missed your show, I need to see you when you come back to the hotel. I'm in the lobby.'

Mitch got the text backstage at the show as the group was getting ready to leave and texted back, 'Okay, we should be wrapped up here within the next thirty minutes or so.'

Peter texted back, 'okay, see you then.'

Mitch looked over at Scott and smiled and said, "Well, I might have a date tonight, Peter is meeting me in the lobby when we get back."

"Mitchie, good for you, I'm glad, Peter seems really nice," Scott said.

"It's not officially, he just said that he needed to see me when we got back," Mitch said with a smile.

"Sounds serious," Scott teased.

Emma and Esther came backstage and greeted the band and Emma went over to Scott and said, "Great show, Scott, you were amazing as always, you all were."

Scott hugged Emma and said, "Thanks Em, one day you are coming up on stage."

Emma shook her head no and said, "Nope, I'll leave that for your crazy fans."

"Not if I just jump down into the audience and pull you up to the stage," Scott teased.

"You actually think that if you jumped into the audience, you wouldn't be mobbed, actually, you should do that, that would be entertaining to see, I'll be sure to invite Olivia to that show," Emma said with a smile.

"Okay, you made your point, silly, I'll just have one of the security guards do it for me," Scott said.

"You wouldn't," Emma said smirking towards Scott.

Avi and Kirstie were sitting alone in her dressing room and she was laughing at Avi who looked at her and said, "What?"

"I can't believe that you made me the 'chair girl' tonight during the show, that was so funny," Kirstie said with a smile.

"It's your own fault, you put it out there on Superfruit, you knew it was only a matter of time, and we even practiced it in rehearsal. The guys all knew that we were going to that for the live show," Avi said with a wide smile.

"I should have known, you did great tonight, Avi, if I haven't told you a million times already," Kirstie said as she stood up and walked over to the couch where Avi was sitting.

Avi held out his arms towards Kirstie and pulled her towards him and said, "You were incredible tonight! Even after the whole Becki thing, you went out there and did the best show tonight, you astound me every day, Kirstie, and I just keep falling more and more in love with you."

Kirstie beamed and fell into Avi's arms and said, "I love you so much, Avi. More than you would ever know."

Avi leaned in and kissed Kirstie as she put her arms around him and kissed him back. They kissed for a while before there was a light knock on the door and Kirstie broke free and giggled and walked towards the door as Avi frowned. Kirstie answered the door all flushed and laughed as Esther stood there, "Hi Esther."

Esther instantly knowing she disrupted something said, "Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt anything. Um, we are heading towards the hotel soon. We are leaving here in about ten minutes."

Kirstie nodded and said, "Thanks Esther, we'll meet y'all there at the van."

Esther giggled and headed down the hallway to find Kevin to let him know as well. Kirstie shut the door and turned towards Avi and laughed, "Let's get going, we don't want to miss our ride."

Everyone piled into the van and they were all still buzzing from the amazing show and had no idea what they were about to walk into. The band started to head to their suites at the Ritz and was surprised to see Peter standing in the lobby with two girls. Mitch walked up ahead and saw one of the girls standing behind Peter step forward beside him. Mitch thought that the two girls looked familiar, but didn't know for sure. Mitch smiled at Peter and said, "Hi Peter. Is everything okay?"

"No, Mitch, everything is not okay. I need to speak with you and your band. This is my sister, Lisa and her friend, Jess, and we are here to speak with you all as well," Peter said looking very sad.

Mitch gave a look of confusion and as the others gathered around Mitch, Emma walked forward past Scott and past Mitch and stood inches from Lisa's face and said, "What are you doing here?"

Lisa stepped back behind her brother, Peter, and tears started flowing. Peter shook his head and said "Lisa, you might as well tell them why you are here. We aren't going anywhere until you do."

Kirstie and Esther both flanked Emma and Esther glared at Jess recognizing her instantly as the girl who held her in the bathroom. Esther crossed her arms and said, "What are you doing here?"

Esther, Emma, and Kirstie stood in front of Peter and a very quiet Lisa and Jess who were both standing quietly behind Peter, cringing away from the confrontation in front of them.

Peter cleared his throat and said, "May we come into your room for a moment, Lisa, Jess, and I have something that we would like to say to you all."

"Lisa, remember me, I'm the girl you held against the wall in the bathroom as your friend, Becki, attacked my cousin, Kirstie," Emma said angrily. Esther looked over at Jess and said, "Jess, is it, I'm the girl you held against the wall in the bathroom too."

Kevin and Scott stepped forward towards Emma and Esther. Kevin placed a hand on Esther's shoulder and Esther glanced at Kevin who was giving her such a sincere look, she stepped back a little. Scott stood beside Emma and placed his hand on her arm and gently pulled Emma back some and she backed off of Lisa and faced Scott with tears in her eyes.

"We need to be calm right now," Scott said quietly placing his arms around Emma. Emma looked around and saw that they were all still standing in this very nice lobby and she didn't want to cause a scene. She nodded and stepped back a little bit too.

Lisa spoke up first and said, "Yes, it was me in the bathroom and I'm so sorry for that. I don't know your name, but I am sorry if I hurt you. I also, wanted to say that I was sorry for…" She stopped and looked over at Peter who was looking at her with the same disappointed look her father gave her.

She looked down at the carpet in front of her and blinked tears away from her eyes. Jess took this opportunity to say, "I'm truly sorry for doing that to you, Esther. That was wrong of me to do that and I'm really sorry about that."

Peter was not satisfied with the apologies and looked at the group and said, "I'm truly sorry on behalf of my family, we had no knowledge of the actions of Lisa, Jess, and Becki. What they have not told you yet is that they are also, the same girls who broke into the house the other day and tried to scare you all. Speaking on behalf of my father, Mike Andrews, we will completely credit back any charges we have charged you up to this point and consider this stay on us this fall season as well as damages that the girls have caused you. We ask that at this time, you do not press charges against Lisa, as she is a minor."

"Please don't press charges on me either, I'm a minor too," Jess said now realizing the severity of the situation and was truly scared for what was going to happen to her for the first time.

Esther stepped back towards the girls and said, "Who cut my hair?"

Lisa looked up at Esther and said quietly, "I didn't know that Becki was going to do that, I promise you that, Jess and I were scared when Becki did that. I thought that it was going to be funny and a couple of screams and then we would leave. Then Becki started screaming really loudly and then she went into your room and cut your hair and came back out with your hair in her hand. I'm so sorry Esther, I'm so sorry to all of you."

Kirstie stepped forward and walked up to Lisa and Jess who were both clearly upset and scared and she stood in front of them. Lisa and Jess both took a deep breath and looked into Kirstie's eyes and could see that Kirstie had been upset and hurt by everything.

Kirstie crossed her arms in front of her and said, "Lisa, Jess, I'm sorry that this is the way that we are officially meeting, I hope that you both can learn from this experience and move on. Thank you for being brave and facing us tonight, I know that this was not easy for you to do." Kirstie then walked over to Peter and said, "Thank you Peter for bringing Lisa and Jess here. I'm sorry that you found out about this tonight, please know that we do not hold you or your father responsible for this, but thank you for paying for our stay here, that will be very kind of you. As for you Lisa and Jess, you are not welcomed back here as long as we are staying here in this hotel. You might as well tell your friend, Becki, that she will not be welcomed here either. If we see any of you, we will be placing a restraining order on all three of you. Good night Peter, good bye Lisa, good bye Jess."

With that, Kirstie walked away towards the elevators as Avi followed closely behind. Lisa gave them such a sorrowful look and they all passed quietly as they headed out of the lobby area. Jess looked down at the ground as she couldn't face them. Scott walked with Emma as they passed Lisa and Lisa softly said, "I'm sorry." Emma stared at her and just nodded, she didn't know what to say, and she felt that Kirstie said all that there was that needed to be said.

Lisa looked at Peter and said, "Can I go to the car now, I can't be here anymore?"

Peter nodded and said, "I'll be out there shortly."

Jess and Lisa both left the hotel quickly and Lisa walked up to Peter's car. Jess said, "Do you think that she was serious about the restraining order?"

Lisa looked at her friend with a shocked look and said, "Yes, I think that she was serious."

"We need to tell Becki," Jess said.

"Good luck getting a hold of her; she won't return my calls or texts. As far as I'm concerned, I'm staying away from Becki, she drug us into all of this mess, and I know that it's not her fault for my actions, but I am in so much trouble with my dad and brother, I can't even go into it right now," Lisa said.

"Okay, I'll try and reach Becki. Thanks Lisa for letting me come, I'll talk to you later, okay," Jess said as she walked down the street.

Mitch walked up to Peter and said, "Okay, I wasn't expecting that to be the family emergency from earlier."

"I'm sorry Mitch, I truly am. I am so disappointed in Lisa, my father is beyond mad at her right now, I'm sure that he will be happy to work with the police for Kirstie and get the restraining orders all set up if it comes to that," Peter said.

Mitch frowned and said, "You know, none of us, will ever blame you, Peter. We know that you didn't have anything to do with this, you have been nothing but the nicest person since we have been here."

"Thank you Mitch, I appreciate that, I just feel awful about everything," Peter said.

"I know, but try not to feel too awful, it's okay, kids do stupid things sometimes, we were all young kids too once," Mitch said with a halfway smile.

"I guess, well, I should go, my father is expecting us back," Peter said.

Mitch nodded and said, "Okay, I'll see you later, Peter."

"I'm sorry that I missed your show tonight, I would have loved to see you perform, you are such an amazing singer," Peter said as he walked away.

Mitch smiled and said, "You will another night, we aren't going anywhere. Bye Peter."

"Bye Mitch," Peter said and walked out of the hotel front door.

Upstairs in the pent house suite where Kirstie, Avi, Scott, Kevin, Mitch, Emma, and Esther were all staying, Mitch walked in and found the group all sitting in the living room scattered on a variety of overstuffed chairs, couches, and floor pillows. Mitch walked over to Kirstie and sat beside her and said, "Kirstie, you were so calm back there, what came over you, I thought for sure, you would have been livid."

Kirstie shrugged and said, "They were just the little kids. I looked at them and saw the tears falling down their faces and I knew that they were sorry. Besides, I doubt it was them who masterminded the whole thing, it was the little ring leader, Becki, who I would have really gone off on. I was serious about the restraining orders, if I see them again and they try and do something, I will call the cops instantly."

To Be Continued…


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 – Photo Booth

It had been an entire month since the whole Becki drama and the group was almost back to normal. They felt that they were back in their element; producing some great shows and enjoying their amazing fans. Each show was better than the last. The police finally caught up to Becki, who was hiding out in a nearby hotel next to one of the venues of the shows. She tried to get into one of their shows and this time, the security for Pentatonix knew who she was. Becki was not expecting that and she was caught instantly. She was arrested on site, fined, and issued with a restraining order. Her parents weren't too pleased to hear of her activities. Esther hired a few more body guards for their duration in NYC, which Peter's family paid for; they still felt horrible about everything. Pentatonix was coming to the end of their tour and they were planning their last few weeks in NYC. They absolutely loved their accommodations at the Ritz.

"That was such a great show!" exclaimed Mitch as they headed back to the hotel after a show.

"Yes, it was, our shows are going amazingly!" Scott said with a huge smile towards the group.

Everyone nodded in agreement. As they were riding in their limo on the way back to the Ritz, Esther got a text on her phone. She looked at it again and couldn't believe what she was reading. It couldn't be true, could it? Avi noticed something was wrong and leaned over and whispered towards Esther, "Everyone okay?"

She shook her head and looked very concerned.

Avi not wanting to pry, said, "Is there anything that I can do?"

Esther shook her head again and said, "No, forget it. I need to deal with something as soon as we get back to the hotel. It's on my laptop, that's all."

Avi leaned back and couldn't help but wonder what was going on with his sister. Kirstie squeezed his hand and he looked over at her and Kirstie mouth, "everything okay?"

He shrugged his shoulders.

Esther kept glancing at her phone and would look up every now and then out the window to see how much further they had before arriving at the hotel. When arriving at the hotel, Esther practically bolted from the car and ran inside the hotel.

"Esther," Avi called out, but she didn't respond.

The rest of the group looked at Avi and he just shrugged again and said, "I don't know what's going on, something is though."

Esther arrived at the suites first and she couldn't be happier to be alone in this moment. She slid her key card and waited impatiently for the door to read the card. It turned green and she ran towards her room. She threw her stuff on the bed and plopped down in the desk chair and opened her laptop. She searched and searched and was in horror to discover that what the text said was apparently true. She had received a text from a close friend saying that, 'your computer has been hacked and the photo below will be online tomorrow.'

"Oh my God, this can't be happening," Esther said to herself.

She looked at her text again and read the message again. She somehow kept thinking that she was in some nightmare from which she couldn't wake up. She slowly realized her reality and began wondering what the hell she was going to do. If that photo got out, it would hurt so many people close to her. People wouldn't understand and the gossip websites and magazines would be all over this. She opened her laptop and typed in her password and searched for the folder where the photo must have been. She ran a security check on her laptop and sure enough, there were some hits of a spyware on her laptop. She knew that the damage was already done and she couldn't help but feel so violated.

The rest of the group arrived at the suites and Mitch, Scott, and Emma all headed towards their rooms while Kevin, Kirstie, and Avi headed towards a shared living room. Kevin looked over at Avi and said, "Should we go check on Esther?"

Avi looked over at a concerned Kevin and said, "I'm going to go check on her, she's got me worried that something is really wrong."

Kirstie nodded and asked, "You want me to go?"

Avi looked over at Kirstie and said, "Thank you Kirstie, but let me try first."

Kirstie smiled supportively and said, "Well, I'm going to go change and freshen up, come get me if you need me."

Kirstie left and headed towards her room and Kevin looked through his phone while he sat on the large sofa. Avi headed in the direction of Esther's room and knocked softly.

Esther was startled by the knock and quickly closed her laptop and stood up. She walked over to the door and slowly opened it to see her brother standing there. Avi looking very worried, asked, "Esther, what's wrong? I know something is wrong. What happened?"

She looked down at the ground for a long time and brought her hand up to her eyes and wiped away a tear. Avi stepped forward and placed his arm on her shoulder, this time getting more concerned, asked again, "What's wrong, Esther, please tell me."

Esther blinked away some tears and looked into her brother's eyes and said, "Someone hacked into my laptop and got access to some very private personal photos and it's being leaked tomorrow online."

Avi took a breath relieved that no one had been hurt, and said, "That's all, just some photos. It'll be okay, Esther."

Esther asked, "Just some photos? Did you hear me say very private personal photos?"

"What pictures are being released then?" Avi asked not sure if he wanted to know what very private personal photos of his sister were being released.

Esther walked back towards her desk and sat down while Avi followed her and sat in a chair. She opened her laptop and opened the file where the photos were and she got up so that Avi could sit at the desk. "Those photos, those are the ones being released."

Avi got up and walked over to the desk and sat down and looked at the photos.

"Are these from Kirstie's New Year's Eve party, what's wrong with that, we all had a great time at that party," Avi said feeling somewhat better.

"Keep looking, you'll come to it. The ones from the photo booth," Esther said with her face now in her hands.

Avi looked back at the photos and scrolled through until he got to some photo booth photos. As he looked at each thumbnail, he realized quickly that Esther was kissing a guy and it wasn't a G-rated kissing session, it was more like a PG-13/R-rated kissing session. He didn't want to open the thumbnails to the normal size, so he quickly turned back around and said, "Esther, who were you kissing in the photo booth, it's okay, it's just kissing, I guess, I hope. I don't know if I want to look at them anymore."

"Avi, you need to know, well, you'll know soon enough." Esther said feeling mortified.

Avi sighed and turned back around and quickly glanced through and saw an innocent looking thumbnail and opened it up to the normal size and said, "Oh my God, Esther, seriously."

Esther sighed loudly and said, "Yes. It was a spur of the moment thing, we were both drinking and having a good time, how in the world, would I ever think that that moment would be out there for the world."

Avi turned back around and said, "You have to tell him."

"I know," Esther quietly said back.

"Did you two date?" Avi asked.

"No, this was just a night of fun, that's all," Esther said.

"Kirstie's party was just 8 months ago?" Avi asked.

"Yeah, so," Esther said.

"Nevermind, I need to go now, okay, I'm sorry." Avi said standing up. He needed to go talk to this person and question him. This person knew that Kevin was crushing on Esther at that party and still did this.

Esther stood up and said, "No you don't, Avi! I will go talk to him. I know you."

She pulled her phone out of her pocket and typed a quick text and said, "Okay, there, I told him to come here."

Avi started to pace and finally said, "Does anyone else know about this?"

Esther shook her head and said, "We just thought it would be funny to take some photo booth pictures, one thing lead to another, and we sort of just made out."

"That looks like a lot more than just innocent making out. Esther, this is just not good," Avi said, not really wanting to think about his sister making out with someone.

Esther feeling embarrassed said, "Avi, can you just leave right now? I need to think about this. I'll talk to him when he gets here and we'll decide how to handle this."

Avi wanted to take this all away for his sister, he knew that she didn't want to hurt anyone, and this was going to hurt those close to them. There was a knock at the door and Avi went to answer it and Scott stood there with a concerned look, "What's going on, I got Esther's text. What happened?"

Avi gave Scott a look and stepped aside and didn't answer him and walked into the hallway towards his bedroom. Scott walked into Esther's room and looked at Esther and saw that she was upset. "What's wrong, Esther, what happened?" asked Scott.

Esther walked over to her laptop and asked Scott to come look at the photos. Esther pointed to her pictures and said, "Those pictures will be released tomorrow online. Someone hacked into my laptop and stole them. I'm sure that there will be some dramatic made up story to go along with the photos. I'm so sorry, Scott."

Scott walked over to the desk and sat in the chair and looked up at the photos and saw before him, all of the private photo booth photos that they took at Kirstie's party. He didn't realize that she still had these and had forgotten how serious of a make out session they were having in the small photo booth. He placed his head in his hands. Scott looked back up at the photo and closed the laptop and turned to Esther and said, "I'm sorry, Esther."

Esther went over to the bed and sat down. They sat in silence for a minute or two. Scott broke the silence and said, "This is not good, something so private is about to be public knowledge, and those that will be most affected by this, are the ones closest to us."

"I know. I feel bad that I had that on my laptop, to be honest, I forgot about it. To us, it was just a night of fun, we had too much to drink, and we never did anything else. We were two single adults who made out for a few moments in a photo booth. We never told anyone and now we are going to be faced with this and we will have to talk about it," Esther said.

"We need to tell the group, they should hear from us first," Scott said.

"I don't know if I can do that, it was bad enough to tell Avi," Esther said.

Scott then asked, "How did you find out about this?"

"I have a friend who works for a social media website as an intern and she keeps an ear out for anything PTX related," Esther said.

"Is there any way to stop the story from running, maybe we can ask them not to run the photos, tell them that they were stolen?" Scott asked.

"It's a long shot, but I can try," Esther said. She got up and grabbed her laptop and sat back on her bed and opened up her email account and threw her hands over her mouth.

"What?" Scott asked coming over to her side.

"Scott, the story is out already! The photos were emailed to all of us with the subject line, 'Hidden love affair with one of the Pentatonix singers and their Crew Manager'."

"What, seriously, who sent that e-mail?" Scott asked getting upset.

"It looks like just some e-mail and it looks like it's from my account, what?" Esther asked in horror.

"Oh my God… What are we going to do?" Esther asked.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 - The Truth Comes Out – Part One

(Kevin's POV)

I was sitting in the living room that sat in between some of the shared suites we had at the Ritz. I was alone and was enjoying some peace and quiet. We just finished a great show and this was our down time. I saw Scott heading to Esther's room and Avi coming back out from her room. He walked so quickly past me; I don't think he heard me say his name. He seemed upset about something, but I wasn't sure what. I am crushing hard right now for Esther and I need to find a way to tell her how I feel. I have liked Esther for such a long time that I feel like I might even love her. I didn't really tell anyone about it until late last year. I'm so nervous around Esther; but I shouldn't be, she's one of my best friends. My phone buzzes at me to alert me that I have a new e-mail. I see that it is from Esther and quickly open it. I read the subject line, 'Hidden love affair with one of the Pentatonix singers and their Crew Manager', and wonder what is going on. I look at the photos in the e-mail and I feel my heart break. I truly feel like someone just reached in, grabbed my heart, and ripped it from my chest. I don't know whether to cry or scream or leave. I look back at the photos and see that it is Scott who Esther is making out with. Scott! I'm instantly mad at Scott, how could he do this to me. He knew that I liked Esther at that party and they were making out in the photo booth. I can't look at the pictures anymore and put my phone down beside me. Why on earth would Esther send out an e-mail like this? Was she trying to say something? Are her and Scott together? What about Emma? I get up and go to my room and shut the door. About twenty minutes later, I hear a small knock and don't respond.

It was Avi; he came into the room and saw me pacing back and forth. Avi said, "Kevin, I'm sorry about all of this, I don't think that Esther meant to send this out to everyone, I think that she was hacked. Well, I know that someone hacked her laptop to get to these photos, but they must have hacked her e-mail account too. Kevin, are you okay?"

I stopped pacing and went over to my suitcase and threw it on the bed and started packing. Avi came over and placed his hand on top of my suitcase and asked, "What are you doing, Kev?"

"I'm leaving. You think that I'm going to sit around and look like a fool when one of my best friends made out with the girl that I liked? How could Scott do this? Why would he do this to me?" I ask getting more and more frustrated by the minute.

"To be honest, Kev, I don't think that either one of them were thinking that night. It was stupid and it meant nothing. Scott is with Emma now. We all do silly stupid things when we drink, we have all been there." Avi said trying to reason with me.

"I haven't. I would never make out with someone that you or Scott liked, ever. You, Scott, and Mitch are like my brothers," I say. I then stand up because I know what I have to do now. I have to go talk to Scott. I then realize that Scott and Esther were together in Esther's room alone.

I quickly turn to Avi and said, "Why are they alone in Esther's room? This just doesn't make sense to me. Esther sends this e-mail while the two of them are alone in her room?"

Avi walks over to where he is in front of me and he is blocking the door. I walk up to him and say, "Get out of my way, Avi, I need to go talk to him."

"No, you are too mad right now. Just sleep on this, this is just a huge misunderstanding, Kevin. Really, they don't like each other; it's someone trying to play a game." Avid said.

I walk past Avi into the hallway back out to the living room where I see Emma sitting with Kirstie and Mitch. They look up and Mitch jumps up to come over to me. "Kevin, are you okay?" I shake my head no and look over at Emma who is apparently crying and Kirstie is trying her best to console her. I walk past Mitch heading towards Esther's room.

(Scott's POV)

"Esther, we need to go talk to the group, now. The longer we wait in here, the worse it's going to get. I need to go talk to Emma," I say to Esther, who is still crying, sitting at her desk, still trying to figure out how to erase what has already been done.

"No, Scott. I can't face them. Emma will hate me and whatever chance I had with Kevin is gone now. He's going to be so hurt," Esther says as she wipes her eyes with her hand. I go over and bring some tissues over to her and place my hand on her shoulder and try my best to comfort her.

"It's going to be okay, Esther; really, everything will blow over and be okay. You'll see," I say.

We hear a loud knock at the door which startled us both. I walk over and open it and see Kevin who looks pissed. I don't think that I've ever seen Kevin look mad. Kevin reached in and grabs my arm and pulls me out to the hallway away from Esther's room. He has me by the arm and pulls me past the living room where I catch a glimpse of Mitch, Kirstie, Avi, and Emma. Oh no, Emma. She is crying and doesn't even look towards me. I am pulled back into reality when I realize that Kevin has pulled me into his room. He goes over and shuts his door loudly and stands towards me. He shoves me a little, not hard, but enough to push me back some away from him. I step back cautiously and try to think of what to say.

"Scott, how could you? How could you kiss her?" Kevin blurts out in an angered whisper, which I feel is almost worse than yelling. I think that I would feel better if he was yelling.

"Kevin, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for anyone to get hurt. It was a party, we were all drinking and having a good time," I start out.

"Yea, it looks like you were having a wonderful time with the girl that I like. You knew that I liked Esther that night, I know that much is true." Kevin said disapprovingly.

I look around and notice a suitcase on Kevin's bed and then look back at Kevin and ask, "Are you leaving?"

"Yes, I'm not a fool, Scott Hoying, and I won't stand around and be one," Kevin said.

"I never said you were a fool, Kev, you can't leave, and we still have shows to do. I had forgotten all about that night, it was so long ago." I say.

"You think that I care about the shows now, you can try and find someone else for your group, Scott, I want nothing to do with you," Kevin says.

"You can't mean that, what about Avi, Mitch, and Kirstie," I say.

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you went around making out with someone else's crush," Kevin snaps back at me.

(3rd person POV)

Scott continues to try and convince Kevin that he's sorry and that he never meant to hurt him. Meanwhile, Esther has left her room. She walks into the living room and sees the gang all there, minus Scott and Kevin. She looks from Mitch to Avi to Kirstie to Emma. She walks over to Emma and says, "Emma, you have to know, that it was not me who sent out that e-mail. My laptop was hacked and those pictures are from a long time ago. Scott is so in love with you."

Emma looks up and wipes her face and says, "Esther, I know that you are sorry and that you are hurting as well, but I can't be around you right now. I know that I wasn't with Scott at the time and I have nothing to be upset about, but you see, the only people who know that I'm in a relationship with Scott are sitting right here and our close friends and families. How do you think the fans will react when they see us together now? They are going to hate me, because they don't know me, they know you. I will never be able to have a public relationship with Scott, ever."

Esther frowned and felt bad and replied, "Yes, you will. I will make this all better."

"Why do you still have photos of you and Scott from months ago?" Emma asks.

At this question, Mitch and Kirstie both turn to look at Esther as well. They were curious too. Esther looked at the three of them and said, "Would you believe me if I said I forgot about them?"

"No, no one forgets about those kinds of photos," Emma said.

Esther, feeling embarrassed, said, "Okay, I knew they were there. But, I thought that I had them hidden well enough to where no one would see them."

Emma sat up and Mitch and Kirstie shared a look with each other. Emma calmly asked, "Esther, do you like Scott?"

It was at this moment, that both Kevin and Scott had joined the living room and everyone heard the question being asked. Kevin looked at Esther and waited for her response.

Esther looked around the room into all of the eyes of her best friends including her brother. She looked at Emma and softly said, "I don't really see why that's important."

Emma was taken aback by Esther's answer and said, "You do, don't you."

Esther said, "Em, you don't understand. You haven't been with this group long enough to see how close everyone becomes. You have been with us for just a few months. When we are on tour, in all of these different cities and towns and countries, we all become closer, we form bonds and friendships and relationships and crushes. I'm sure that we have all had our little crushes on other people within this group at one time or another, right Kirstie?"

Kirstie quickly said, "Don't pull me into this conversation, Esther."

Emma felt hurt by Esther's comments and didn't really know how to take it. She said, "So, what are you saying, Esther."

"Nothing, it's just that this whole thing is going to be blown out of proportion, you asked me if I like Scott, and I'll answer your question, but will it make it better. Will it put this all behind us?, Esther answered."

"Oh my, just answer yes or no," Emma said quickly.

"Yes," Esther said shortly.

Emma sat back and didn't expect Esther to respond this way. Mitch touched Emma's arm to let her know it's okay. Kirstie did the same on the other side. Scott stepped forward to reach out towards Emma and Kevin looked horrified. Avi shook his head and got up and walked over to the windows overlooking New York City.

TO BE CONTINED…


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – The Truth Comes Out – Part Two

Emma got up from the couch and walked out of the reach of Mitch and Kirstie and headed towards the door. Scott reached for her arm, but she pulled away and continued on. She knew that pulling away from him wasn't going to make him happy, but she needed space. She wanted out of this room. She could hear voices behind her, but she wasn't paying attention. She felt the room closing in on her and she wanted to get away as fast as she could now. She knew how Scott felt about her, but what she didn't know was how Scott felt about Esther. Esther just professed her feelings for Scott in front of everyone. Emma grabbed her coat and purse on the way out and headed down the long hallway towards the elevators. She waited for the elevator and could hear someone sprinting towards the elevators.

***BACK IN THE LIVING ROOM***

"Esther, do you really like Scott?" Kevin asked almost shocked.

Esther looked at Kevin and frowned and looked down at the ground. She couldn't bear to look at Kevin or anyone. Avi spoke now, "Esther, can we go talk?"

Esther looked over at Avi who seemed disappointed and she nodded. They headed into her bedroom and Esther prepared herself for what her brother was going to say. She really didn't know what he was going to say. Avi paced the length of her room and Esther finally said, "Avi, just say something please."

"Esther, since when have you liked Scott? I thought you liked Kevin? You know that Scott loves Emma, why would you say that? You should have lied, I know that is horrible to say, but what did you expect to happen when you said that?" Avi said. Avi had stopped pacing and was now facing Esther with a look of concern on his face.

Esther took a deep breath and said, "Avi, you of all people should know what it's like to like someone from afar. You liked Kirstie for so long before you made a move. I have liked Scott since the beginning. I also like Kevin. I can't help how my heart feels. I like them both. I know that Scott is with Emma, but I can't help how I feel. I thought that kiss at that party was going to be the start of something, but it never happened. I wasn't able to come to the beach house this summer, and I could kick myself for that, because I feel that if I was able to come there, I could have made my move. Now, believe me when I say, I see how he is when he looks at Emma and I can tell that he loves her, but I truly believe that I can make him happy too. I just didn't want to lie to Emma, she's one of my best friends and I want to continue being her best friend, I just wanted to be truthful."

Avi took all of what Esther was saying and didn't really know how to respond to his sister. He didn't want to see her hurt at all. He did not how it was to like someone from afar; he had liked Kirstie since the very first introduction. He looked at his sister with empathy, for he had a feeling that this was not going to turn out the way it did for him. He looked at her and said, "You have to talk to Kevin if you like him."

"I know, I know. I wasn't really thinking clearly. I can't believe that I just said that out loud. What am I going to do, Avi?" Esther cried.

"I think you have to have some talks with Kevin, Emma, and Scott. You need to be honest with yourself and your friends. You are our crew manager and you are a part of this group. We can't lose you," Avi said trying to as sensitive as he could.

"Okay, Avi," was all that Esther said and then walked back out to the room where she no longer saw Scott or Kevin. She looked to the couch where Kirstie and Mitch were staring at her; clearly they had just been talking about her.

"I'm sorry, guys; I didn't mean to cause such a mess. Where did Kevin and Scott go?" Esther asked.

"Kevin went to his room and Scott headed after Emma almost as soon as you two headed towards your room," Mitch said.

Esther nodded and headed towards Kevin's room.

*** BACK AT THE ELEVATORS ***

"Em, where are you going? We need to talk about this," Scott said catching his breath.

"Scott, what do you want to talk about? Esther just told the entire room that she likes you, she had some private photos on her laptop of y'all, and this time tomorrow, your millions of fans will be obsessed with you both. Did I miss anything?" Emma said trying to hold back her jealous tears that were waiting to pour out of her.

"Emma, those photos were taken last year, I had no idea that she had them still. I forgot about that night to be honest with you. I don't think that Esther likes me in the way she thinks she does. Regardless of what comes out tomorrow to the world, no one can tell me how I feel about you, you know that I love you," Scott said touching Emma's arm gently.

With this, Emma couldn't help but look into Scott's eyes, he was sincere and being very honest with her. "I love you," Emma said with a small smile.

"Can you come back with me now, please?" Scott asked smiling and pulling Emma playfully.

"Scott, I can't. I love you, but I still need some time away from what just unfolded. I'll be okay, I just need to not be around Esther right now."

"What if we go into your suite entrance from the hallway, you won't see Esther at all?" Scott asked hopeful.

"You aren't going to give up, are you?" Emma asked knowing the answer.

Scott shook his head and stepped closer to Emma and pulled her towards him. He put a strand of hair behind her ear and placed his hand on her cheek and leaned in and whispered into her ear, "Emma, I love you more than you will ever know, I'm sorry the photos hurt you. Please come back with me."

He leaned back slightly and kissed Emma lightly and Emma responded by wrapping her arms around him and kissing him back.

They entered Emma's suite through the hallway door and locked the door for both the hallway and the shared suites common area door. Scott pulled Emma into his arms and kissed her and she knew that in that moment, Scott did love her and only her. She hoped that he knew the same.

*** AT KEVIN'S DOOR ***

"Kevin, please let me in," Esther said through a closed door. She knocked softly again and then heard the door click open. She slowly pushed the door open and saw that Kevin was unpacking his suitcase.

"I'm sorry, Kevin," Esther said walking towards Kevin, who was barely looking her way.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Esther said, "Kevin, I have to tell you something."

Kevin looked towards her and said, "I think you just did, back in the living room."

Esther shook her head and said, "Not that, the thing is Kevin, I like you and every day I like you more and more."

Kevin looked at Esther with such a strange expression on his face and said, "What?"

Esther sat in an available chair facing Kevin and took a deep breath. She put her hair behind her ears and cleared her throat and said, "Kev, I like you. I know what I said in the living room, but the truth is, I like you both. I know that is crazy to hear and it might be hurtful, but I can't help it. I really like you."

Kevin sat on the edge of his bed facing Esther and said, "How can you like both of us? He's with Emma? I don't think he's going to leave her."

Esther shrugged and said, "I don't know, I just do."

Kevin then said, "I'm sure that you know that I like you. I have been trying to find a way to tell you for months. I think you are amazing, Esther. But, I have to tell you, I don't know how to process that you like Scott and me both."

Esther then changed the subject for a moment after seeing the suitcase on his bed, "Why were you unpacking, were you planning on leaving?"

"I was. I was so pissed at Scott for kissing you at that party. I'm still a little bit mad, but I'll get over it. It was a long time ago and it's not like we were together. He still broke the brother code though, just saying." Kevin said.

"How did you calm down so fast?" Esther asked.

"I've never been the type to stay mad for long, I don't know. Scott and I also talked for a bit before you confessed your feelings to everyone." Kevin said.

Esther placed her head in her hands and wanted to rewind to that moment, rewind this whole evening. Scott was right, they should have come right out of the room and told everyone before the e-mail went out, but how was she to know that the e-mail was going to be sent out to everyone instantly. Esther raised her head and said, "Kevin, why are you being so nice to me?"

Kevin stood up and walked over to where Esther was sitting and bent down to where he was eye level with her and said, "Esther, I like you. I really like you. It's easy to be nice to you. I'm confused and hurt, but it won't stop me from being kind to you."

Esther smiled and realized it was the first time she smiled since this whole mess began. She leaned forward and hugged Kevin and said, "Thank you for being so sweet. I don't mean to confuse you and hurt you."

Kevin hugged Esther back and felt like there had been a weight lifted off his shoulders because he was able to share his big secret with Esther. He hoped that Esther would see that she didn't have a chance with Scott and that she would have a great chance with him. But, she was going to have to see that for herself.

***IN THE LIVING ROOM***

Avi, Mitch, and Kirstie were all sitting alone in the living room as Esther was in Kevin's room and Scott was somewhere with Emma, they didn't know where. Mitch finally said something in the silence and said, "Okay, what the hell just happened? Did all of this just go down? Am I in an episode of the Kardashian's?"

Kirstie smirked and said, "Mitchie, don't make jokes." She turned to Avi and said, "Avi, since when does Esther have a thing for Scott?"

"Hey, don't look at me, I had no idea. And since when did two of the three musketeers not know about a photo booth make out session?" Avi asked looking at both Kirstie and Mitch.

Kirstie and Mitch shared a glance and Kirstie knew that look in Mitch's eye and said, "You knew, Mitchie!"

Mitch said, "Well, I didn't think anything of it since nothing happened from it. We are talking about something that happened over eight months ago."

"I can't believe you knew and didn't tell me?" Kirstie teased.

Mitch smiled and then added, "Do you think that Esther really likes Scott?"

Avi nodded and said, "Yes, unfortunately, I believe she does. She also likes Kevin."

Mitch and Kirstie both nodded and Kirstie said, "Sounds like she might get hurt, if she goes down the Scott path. I think Scott's pretty much madly in love with Em."

Mitch said, "Yea, I agree with you."

"I feel bad for her; I know what it's like to be in her position. I liked you, Kirstie, for years, before I said anything," Avi said.

Kirstie leaned over and touched Avi's arm and smiled. Mitch smiled and said, "I should let you two have some alone time, I'm going to go get ready for bed, I doubt we will see any more drama tonight."

Kirstie said, "I'm actually tired, I'm going to go get ready for bed also."

Yawning, Avi said, "Me too, I'm tired too." Then he smiled and winked towards Kirstie and grabbed her hand and they headed towards his room. Mitch smiled and shook his head, "You two are so silly."

***BACK IN KEVIN'S ROOM***

"Well, I'm going to go get ready for bed now, Kevin. Thanks for listening to me," Esther said.

"Of course, Esther, I'm not going to give up on you, I hope you know that," Kevin said with a wide smile.

"I hope not," Esther said as she walked towards the door and turned back around and said, "Good night."

Esther stepped out into the living room and saw that no one was around. She wondered if Emma or Scott were back. She needed to talk to Scott and she wanted to talk to Emma. She went to Scott's door and knocked and the door was unlocked. She slowly opened it and peeked in and saw that Scott was nowhere to be seen. She then walked over to Emma's door and knocked softly. She heard some noise and then heard the door unlock and open slightly, it was Emma.

"Esther, can I help you?" Emma said, almost coldly.

"Em, can we talk? I want to apologize for earlier, that was not fair to you. I really feel like you'll feel better about everything after we talk," Esther said. Esther had no idea that Scott was just mere feet away lying in Emma's bed. Emma kept the door just opened enough for her to talk to Esther.

"Esther, not tonight, okay," Emma said.

"Why?" Esther said.

Looking back over her shoulder at Scott, Emma turned back towards Esther and said, "Because, it's not really a good time, okay."

Esther looked confused and then it came to her, "Oh, you have someone in your room."

"Yes, if you must know," Emma said strangely and then said, "Esther, we can talk tomorrow, okay."

Esther smiled awkwardly and said, "Okay, by the way, have you seen Scott?"

Smiling right back, Emma said, "Yea, why?"

By this time, Scott had gotten up to see what was taking so long at the door and leaned over Emma and looked at Esther and then frowned. Esther saw the shirtless Scott standing behind Emma. His hair was messy and come to speak of it, so was Emma's. Everything was becoming clearer to her and she stepped back and said, "Sorry, guys, didn't mean to uh, bother you."

Scott said, "Good night, Esther", and closed the door and locked it.

Esther headed to her room and closed the door behind her and went to her desk and sat down at her laptop. She opened the photos again and looked at them and closed the private folder and her laptop. Tomorrow was a new day and she really needed to figure her feelings out.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 – New Day, New Beginnings

(Esther's POV)

I wake up and turn over to my side and look at my clock. It is 5:45AM. Wow, it's early. I slowly sit up and yawn. I get up and walk over to the window and look out into the world of NYC. I see people walking busily and am envious because they don't have to live through the embarrassment of my life today. I went to my laptop and checked my e-mails and went to the one from my friend who had originally told me about my laptop getting hacked. I was able to stop the virus last night and set up new passwords late last night. She said that they decided not to run the story due to it being false. I sent her a statement last night and didn't know if she would get it in time. It didn't really matter; the damage to those that I cared about was already done. I needed to talk to Scott still about this and he didn't look too pleased with me last night. He looked disappointed in me for some reason, how I wish I could go back and just tell Em that I didn't like Scott. Why did I say that? I don't know. There's no chance that Scott and I would ever be together, I know he loves Emma. I do like Kevin, but it's different. I write to my friend and let her know that I am grateful for her company not running the story. I send out an email to everyone in the group that the story will not run and again, apologized for any hurt that it may have caused. About twenty minutes pass and I am caught completely off guard when I hear a soft knock at my door. (Knock, knock)

Who in the world would be knocking at my door at this hour? I get up and walk over to my door and ask through the closed door, "Who is it?"

"Scott," Scott whispered through the door.

I closed my eyes and placed my palm on the door as I twisted the lock and before I opened the door, I took a deep breath. I pulled the door opened and saw Scott standing there waiting for me to let him in.

"Scott, what's wrong, it's early?" I ask. I'm still a little surprised that he's here at my door.

"We need to talk, Esther," Scott said very calmly.

I stand back a little and let Scott enter and then look down the darken hallway. I close the door and turn towards Scott who is pacing back and forth. He stops and sits in the chair by the desk and looks at me and I finally say, "What do we need to talk about, Scott?"

"Esther, we need to talk about everything that happened last night," Scott said sincerely.

I walk over to my bed and sit down facing him. I pull the blanket up around my legs and cross them. I fold me hands in front of me as well and eventually look up at him. "Scott, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to blurt out that I liked you, especially in front of everyone. I wasn't really thinking."

"Esther, do you really like me?" Scott asked.

I look at him and feel myself blushing. I reach for my face and hide my face in my hands and I nod my head. I look at Scott and say, "I have really tried not liking you since you and Em got together. I would never ask you to break up or anything like that. I'm so sorry that I told her that I like you, I wish I could take that back."

Scott looked at me, with a look of sympathy and said, "Esther, I like you too, but you know I don't like you in that way. You are such a wonderful girl and I know that there is someone out there who will love you unconditionally and you'll love him too!"

I nodded, knowing what he was saying was true, who was I kidding, and Scott wasn't leaving Emma for me. I knew that last night. I cleared my throat and said, "Does Emma hate me?"

Scott shook his head and said, "No, she doesn't. She's confused, but she would never hate you."

I smile slightly, only slightly, and then ask, "Is there anything else that you want to talk about?"

Scott stands in response and says, "No, I just wanted to talk before everyone got up. I got your e-mail; I'm glad that the story is not getting out to the public."

I nodded in agreement and say, "Okay, thanks for coming to talk to me."

Scott headed out of my room and as the door shut, I laid my head back on my pillow. I heard another knock at my door and wondered if it was Scott again. I got up and pulled the door opened and was shocked to see Kevin standing there.

"Hi," was all that I could manage.

"Esther, I wanted to do something last night, but I feel like if I don't do this, I'm going to lose my chance." Kevin said.

"Kevin, what are you talking about?" I asked.

"Esther, I would like to kiss you," Kevin said.

I was surprised by his request, but something in me wanted to kiss Kevin in that moment. I smiled and said, "I think that would be okay."

"Okay," Kevin said with a wide smile. He stepped forward and touched my shoulders gently and pulled me into him and kissed me softly on my lips and I felt my entire body become alive. I wrapped my arms around Kevin's shoulders and reached for the back of his head. Our kiss turned into a very passionate first kiss. When we finally broke free, I couldn't help but giggle.

"Kevin," was all that I could manage to get out.

Kevin smiled and said, "Esther, I hope you know that it's going to harder than ever to not want to do that again."

I blush and smile and say, "You can do that anytime you like, Kevin."

"So, what are you feeling right now?" Kevin asked me.

I stood back and couldn't help but say, "I'm feeling very happy right now. I wish you kissed me like that a long time ago."

"Would it have mattered?" Kevin asked.

I looked up at Kevin with new feelings bursting through me. Feelings that I felt that were always there, I guess. I smile and say, "Yes, it would have mattered a lot."

Kevin smiles and nods and says, "Well, I'll leave you to it, see you later."

I smile and close the door and turn towards my room and throw my hands over my mouth to keep my excitement inside of me. How in the world did my life change so much in the past 12 hours? And that kiss? Oh my God! That kiss. I go to my laptop and open it up and go to my private folder and hit delete. I remove them from the recycling bin on my desktop and feel instantly better, no more private folder photos. I am going to start this relationship with Kevin with a blank slate. No secrets. No photos to ever come back and haunt me.

(Kevin's POV)

I walk back to the living room and see Mitch sitting on the couch with Avi. They stop talking and I know that they are talking about everything that went down last night. I sit down and smile at them both. Mitch notices my smirk and says, "Kev, you seem happy today?"

"Why wouldn't I be, Mitchie?" I ask with a big smile.

Avi says, "Yes, you seem very happy, is everything okay?"

Avi and Mitch share a very concerned look with one another and then back towards me. They must think that I've lost my mind. I smile back at them and stand up and head towards my bedroom, "Everything is amazing and awesome."

I laugh as I head back to my room. I hear them talk in whisper to one another and know that they are really confused.

(Avi's POV)

"Mitch, are we in the twilight zone?" I ask.

"You know, Avi, I'm not sure, but, that was really strange. He seemed like he was on top of the world. I guess his talk with Esther went really great?" Mitch says shrugging his shoulders.

Smiling, I added, "I guess so."

(Scott's POV)

I slowly get back into bed and try not to wake Emma. Too late for that, because as soon as I climbed back into bed, Emma turned towards me and asked, "Where did you go?"

"I went to talk to Esther, I needed to talk to her about last night," I say.

Emma's eyes opened up and she looked at me quickly. She then sat up and said, "And?"

"And what?" I say, not fully understanding Emma's question.

"And, what was said between the two of you?" Emma said, now staring at me with such seriousness in her eyes.

I reach over and touch her arm and smile. I then say, "Em, I told her that I didn't like her in that way and that she would find someone wonderful. I'm with you. You know that."

Emma smiles at me and says, "Yes, I do. Does she know that I'm not sharing you?" She smirks at her last comment letting me know she was teasing.

I pull Emma towards me and hold her close saying, "I love you."

"I love you," Emma says back.

"So, are you okay with the whole Esther thing?" I ask.

I feel her shrug and quietly say, "I guess. I have to get used to girls liking you, I have seen the fangirl comments. There's a lot of girls out there and they will always be there. I just never expected one of those girls to be one of my best friends."

"I don't think that she meant to hurt you at all, if it helps. I think that she's confused. To be honest, I don't think that she likes me in that way at all," I say.

"I hope so; I really don't know how to act around her now?" Emma asks.

"I think that everything will be okay, trust me," I say.

Emma leans towards me and kisses me on the cheek and says, "Okay, I'll try my best to believe that."

(Kirstie's POV)

Avi came back into the bedroom and I was finishing up e-mailing my parents. I look over at Avi and see that he's very relaxed and calm. I ask, "What did I miss?"

Avi smiles wide and comes over to me and says, "I don't know, I think that everything is going to be okay now. Kevin went to talk to Esther and he was beaming, literally beaming. Esther sent out an e-mail that the story is not going to go out, so that's wonderful too."

"Yes, I saw that. I'm so glad," I say smiling back and add, "That's great about Kevin. I wonder what him and Esther talked about?"

"Have you talked to Emma at all?" Avi asked.

"No, she's been in her room with Scott, I didn't want to interrupt," I say.

"I'm glad that they are okay, they are so good together," Avi said.

"Yes, I think so too. He's really good for Emma and vice versa. She seems to make him really happy," I say.

"Yes, so, you think that I should go check on Esther?" Avi asks.

"No, let's just let it go for now. A lot went down last night, and for now, Kevin seems happy, so it must be a good sign. Besides, we are all going to be eating breakfast soon downstairs in the restaurant," I say.

"Okay," Avi said and he leaned in and gave me a quick kiss.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	12. Chapter 12

Goodbye, New York City and to this Story…

As the group planned for their last show in the Big Apple, things seemed to be falling into place for everyone. It has been several days since Esther and Kevin shared their first kiss and they have been inseparable ever since. Esther filled her whole heart with feelings for Kevin and knew that he was truly the one that she had been waiting for. Kevin and Esther announced to the rest of the group that they were dating now and everyone was thrilled for them, especially Emma, who was happy that Esther didn't seem to be into Scott anymore. Although, she didn't say that out loud.

As for Avi and Kirstie, they were just as much in love as ever. Kirstie had no idea, but Avi was planning a proposal for her. He wanted to ask her to marry him in their upcoming tour to Europe (A/N: 3rd part of the series hint..!) He only told Esther and no one else.

Mitch and Peter were finally hitting it off and Peter even got up the nerve to ask Mitch out on a date, even though it was almost their last night in NYC. Mitch accepted and they had a wonderful date that ended with an innocent kiss. Mitch didn't think that it would go anywhere, but he liked Peter and would keep in touch with him.

Scott and Emma were happy as could be. Scott was thrilled for Kevin and Esther and was happy that the almost drama of those photos from a party months and months ago was over. He really loved Emma and didn't want anything to ruin that.

THE END

(A/N: I felt that I got writer's block during this story and I didn't want to leave it all in limbo, so I finished it for now. I do have some ideas for a 3rd part of the series, which will take place in Europe as hinted above. I am going to write a completely different story between now and the debut of that story. Thank you as always for reading! Stay tuned for Part 3 of this series.)


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